Edge of Toothless
by mattjdupree
Summary: DECEASED FIC - A HTTYD AU fic where Night Furies have the ability to jump backwards in time (with limitations on when in time they can jump, ala Edge Of Tomorrow). Our little protagonist Hiccup accidentally stabs Toothless during their first meeting, and he gets to join his Night Fury in repeating the days up to the battle against the Red Death again and again.
1. Chapter 1 The Day Before Battle

**-First Time Author Warning-**

 **My first time publishing a long-form one, anyway. If you don't trust first-time authors on principle, then don't read. Just know that I'm doing my damndest _not_ to A) Abandon the story B) Write a bad story or C) write improperly (in the realms of grammar and spelling).**

 **That is all.**

 **-FTA Warning End-**

 **-Alternate Universe Fic Warning-**

 **In the process of writing this fic (my first released fic) around chapter two I became incredibly afraid I'd Mary-Sue one of the canon characters. Because I'd rather not get you guys interested in a fic, then change some character you like for the silly, here are the changes-from-canon that I'm applying to the various characters and species. I'll also be justifying them, where necessary.**

 **Night Furies:**

 **Edge of Tomorrow-esque time control/jumps. Understanding of spoken Norse. Communication using some dragon-language with the other dragons of this 'intelligent' caste. (I'm not going to write dragon-dragon dialogue, but I will describe them talking from Hiccup's perspective)**

 **Justification: With this simple control over time allowing the minds of the dragons to live theoretically forever (as long as they jump back to some early point, and don't set any later anchors) they can have plenty of time to learn languages, even of species that may (or may not) be considered the enemy.**

 **Bork the Bold (/the Very Very Unfortunate):**

 **A time-loop experience with a Stormcutter (which allowed him to gather so much information on dragons without dying.) He catalogues the dragons in The Book Of Dragons but catalogues the whole time thing in a restricted tome (as Hiccup said in the first movie, a "sequel, book or pamphlet or something") called The Tale Of Dragons. Bork was eventually removed from the loop(s?) when he lost an arm and a leg, and a healer performed a rudimentary mimicry of a blood transfusion, which flushed the Stormcutter's temporal influence from his veins.**

 **Justification: How else would someone go from worse-than-Hiccup to best-in-village? I like this explanation for how Bork and his work never got destroyed by the dragons he studied: Both did, repeatedly.**

 **-AU Fic Warning end-**

 **-Rating Justification-**

 **Violence: T for Major Character Death and implied Family-Unfriendly Death.**

 **Language: T for Innuendos. No overt sexual references or suggestions of off-screen relations.**

 **If you're looking for specific ages or a movie-theatre style rating, I'd say this story is rated the same as your local government rated Edge of Tomorrow.**

 **-Rating Justification End-**

Chapter 1 | The Day Before Battle

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third was a true Viking warrior, a perfect embodiment of everything Viking, just like a chicken was an embodiment of everything dragon. The boy had big, 'beefy' arms that were a whole three centimeters thick, a quarter the arm-size of literally everyone else in the village. His legs also embodied the Viking spirit - whereas everyone else in town had short and stubby legs used only for jumping into battle, Hiccup's legs made up nearly 40% of his height - seemingly designed entirely for the 'very' Viking-like activity of running away.

As if all those other features weren't Viking enough, he was also the most graceful in the village. Climbing out of bed in the morning was an affair that never, ever involved pain from accidentally hitting his head on-

"Ahg- dang. G'Morning to you too, bedpost! Thanks. For that." Hiccup complained to his empty room. Green eyes still bleary, he shrugged out of yesterday's tunic and trousers, exchanging them for an off-white shirt and pair of brown cloth leggings from the chest at the foot of his bed. Still not entirely woken up, he glanced out the window above his bed and admired the view of Berk afforded by his family's privilege, and the incredibly rare blue-skied day.

Below him, the village stretched down a somewhat steep incline to the ocean's edge. His house, the Haddock residence, was placed at the highest point still really a 'part' of the village, just below the treeline. Down a path and off to the left was the village square, (which was, in point of fact, circular) surrounded by the forge, a storehouse, and several mid-class residences. Even further down lay pastures, and at the base of the hill the docks. Everywhere in between his home and the docks, Vikings busied themselves with the tasks of village life. Hiccup, noticing all this activity, looked up into the clear sky, and realized how late he'd slept in.

Quickly now, He clambered down the wooden staircase into his living room and burst out the front door, letting it swing closed behind him. Running down the hill, he ducked under several Vikings carrying a log, and jumped clear over a cartful of scrap wood. The admonishments of the Vikings left in his wake went ignored, as he finally made it to the village square and rushed into the forge.

The one-armed, one-legged forgemaster, Gobber, looked up from the blade he was hammering straight. As he spoke, his underbite pressed into his ground-reaching moustache, "Hiccup! Nice o' ya to finally sho' up. Was startin' to think you got carried off by trolls."

Hiccup chuckled at Gobber's attempted humor, "Gobber, I'm not just a kid anymore. I know trolls aren't real."

"Trolls are real!" Gobber countered, "They steal your socks. But only the left ones. What's up with that?"

Hiccup looked down at Gobber's right peg-leg, and his left intact-leg, then turned back to taking broken weapons down from the rack. "Sure Gobber, Sure."

Once Hiccup was holding so many broken blades he could barely stand (a whole four of them) he dumped them on the forge, then struggled to pull down on the bellows.

The two of them worked in companionable silence for the next few hours, Hiccup moving weapons and prosthetic-left-hands around the store - occasionally sharpening the former - while Gobber hammered said weapons back into a usable shape. As the sun began to sink toward the horizon, Gobber finally broke the silence, "A'ight, it's been a few hours, and I know y'been itchin' to work on some project o' another o' yours. I think we've got more than enough blades to handle a raid, so I'm headed off to the great hall for the evening. Don't burn down the forge. While I'm gone. Y'know."

Hiccup lifted the sword he'd just finished sharpening onto the rack, "Have fun drinking Gobber. Try not to swallow your fake tooth again."

As Gobber left the forge, he complained loudly, "Tha' was one time!"

Once Gobber was lost in the bustle of Vikings outside, Hiccup slipped into the back room of the forge. Here, Hiccup had his writing desk, a pile of parts relating to his half-completed project, and other various knick-knacks he'd picked up over time. Gobber left this room all just for Hiccup because, hilariously, the overweight forgemaster couldn't fit through the door.

First Hiccup went to the writing desk, shifting some of his papers depicting some kind of bola launching machine. Then he turned around to the actual thing on the other side of the room. The contraption was designed to fold down into a small log base barely a foot in diameter. Said base had mounted wheels and handles to be pulled like a small cart, or pushed like a wheelbarrow. Hiccup pulled on one part of the lid, and the launcher itself popped up out of the base into a readied position. All he had left to do was make some nails to affix the wood that'd be holding the firing tension to the body of the weapon. Retreating back into the forge, Hiccup set several chunks of scrap metal on the forge and began to heat them.

An hour later, the sun reached the horizon. Hiccup was finishing the last nail when a blonde girl about his age and height - but outfitted in a studded leather armor - came waltzing in. He looked up to stare up at the new customer, and his next hammer blow took the front two inches of the nail clean off.

"Oh- Uhh, Astrid! Hi. What can I, y'know the forge, do for you toda-" Hiccup began to stammer.

Astrid rolled her eyes at Hiccup's now usual inability to speak in her presence. "Axe. Need it sharpened. Dulled it out practicing on trees this morning."

"O-oh, yeah, sure." Hiccup took the proffered two-headed waraxe and moved to the whetstone.

"So… Uh," Hiccup continued to stammer, inadvisably continuing the conversation, "practicing for what?"

Astrid gave Hiccup an incredulous stare. "Dragon training? The thing that gets a kid noticed around here?" She huffed, "I suppose you wouldn't need to worry about getting noticed."

Hiccup began to formulate some sarcastic or defensive reply, but the response died on his tongue. Quietly, he worked on the axe blades.

After about a minute, Astrid spoke up again, "The nail you were working on when I came in, is it broken now?"

"Oh, that, nah, it's just… a little weaker." Hiccup replied.

Astrid looked at the half of a nail, left unattended on the anvil. "It looks to me like you broke it in half."

Hiccup glanced over, then returned to sharpening her axe, "In this case, it's not the size that matters. I only made the nails as long as I did for additional strength."

"So size doesn't matter?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah, not in this- Oh. Very funny. Thanks for that."

Astrid laughed. An actual laugh that devolved into a bit of giggling. As soon as she had control over herself again, she took the now finished axe from Hiccup. Before he knew what was going on, Astrid had pinned him to the floor, the handle of the axe pressing into his throat. "Tell anyone about that giggle, and I will _end_ you." she snarled.

"Yes, yeah, whatever you say." Hiccup coughed around the axe.

The axe was removed from his throat, and as he clambered to his feet Astrid calmly left the store, axe on her shoulder like nothing was wrong. Hiccup rubbed his throat and muttered, "Girls are so weird." Then, he picked up the finished nails from the floor - and the broken one - and retreated into the back room.

As the last of the sun's rays left the top of the mountaintops, Hiccup finished his bola launching contraption. The design essentially functioned like a crossbow crossed with a ballista, but the tension spars were vertical and the ammo was a bola, rather than a crossbow bolt. If he was lucky and had good aim (both two things of which he had an exceptional paucity) he'd manage to take down a dragon, and get some (positive) recognition from his village. With the sky darkening overhead, Hiccup loaded and stored the launcher, then left the forge. His goals: back home for dinner, then rest for the next day of mundane smithing.

Up the hill he walked, Vikings around him moving lumber and livestock to prepare the village for the coming evening. As the bustle fell away, he reached the end of the path and stepped up to his front door. He turned, closing the door and locking the cold air outside. He turned back to the embers of the fire, grabbed a few logs from the nearby woodpile, and threw them on. He was about to reach for kindling when, outside, a sound echoed that was neither Viking nor livestock.

Forgetting about the cold hearth, Hiccup ran to the door and swung it open. Outside, a Monstrous Nightmare - a large red dragon with a huge wingspan and no forelegs - flew after a Viking, who in turn was running after some escaped livestock. In midair, the Nightmare turned, spotted the scrawny Viking watching it, and fired a blast of fiery death straight at Hiccup.

Hiccup, with reflexes he didn't know he possessed, slammed the door shut just before the fiery saliva engulfed the front of the building. Breathing heavily, he whispered to himself, "Dragons!"

Once the door cooled enough that the other side wouldn't kill him, he threw it open and began to run back down the path he'd already traversed twice today. The closer he got to the village square (circle) the more Vikings wielding weapons he had to dodge, many of them admonishing him, this time for being outside during a raid. In his wake he left a cloud of, "Sorry!"ies, which calmed noone.

As he came down some steps, he heard and felt flames reaching toward him on the right as a dragon swooped to scorch the Vikings on the ground. All the Vikings around him dodged out of the way, but he was lifted bodily by the scruff of his neck. The man lifting him from harm's way shouted in his face, "What are you doin'-" he cut himself off and turned to the crowd of Vikings, "What is he doing out again?!" Turning back to Hiccup, he set the boy down then gave him a shove, with a curt "Get back inside!"

Hiccup, not one to argue with the chief of the village himself, ran in the direction he was shoved and entered the forge.

Gobber looked up from the blade he was hammering flat, just as he had that morning. "Hiccup! Good ta see ya'! Was beginnin' to think you were carried off by the dragons."

Hiccup lifted a heavy warhammer that had dropped to the floor in the chaos of the raid, replying, "Who me? Nah, I am way too muscular for their tastes. They wouldn't know what to do with all… This." He gave his best attempt at bulging his bicep, which made his arm look even smaller than it had at his side.

Getting back to work, Hiccup went to the window to retrieve another pile of weapons left for repair by the village's warriors. His gaze was drawn to the group of other kids his age hauling in a water barrel and preparing to fight the fires developing on all the surrounding buildings. Tuffnut and Ruffnut, as usual, were fighting over the same bucket, wearing their hair the same way, and wearing matching brown tunics over grey leggings. Snotlout - Hiccup's cousin - was wiping his nose with his entire forearm, ruining the black fur of his tunic. Fishlegs, the overweight one, wore only a fur coat and brown leggings. As Hiccup watched, he tripped over a flagstone and dumped his bucket of water on himself. Behind them all, Astrid threw water on a fire and actually managed to put it out, until it was relit by a passing dragon. Unbidden, a comment slipped from his lips, "Aww. Thier job is so much cooler."

At that moment, Gobber came up from behind Hiccup, hoisting him up in the air with his prosthetic-arm's tongs.

"Let me out, please, I need to make my mark!" Hiccup whined.

"Ach, you've made plenty o' marks, all in the wrong places!" Gobber shot back.

Hiccup, not one to back down from banter - even at his expense - continued to whine, "Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon, my life will get infinitely better - I might even get a date."

Gobber took the logical side of the argument again, "Y' can't lift a hammer, y' can't swing an axe, y' can't even throw one of these!"

The 'one of these' - three rocks tied together with a rope - Gobber was holding up was taken right out of his hand by someone outside the window. The person outside proceeded to twirl the rocks around, then threw the rapidly spinning bola at an incoming Gronkle. The bola wrapped around the dragon's legs, adding weight and altering its flight path so that it collided with a building.

Hiccup refused to back down, "Okay, fine, but this will throw it for me!"

He set his hand on the lid of the bola launcher he'd finished that morning, which promptly (and unexpectedly) popped up into its ready position and fired a bola out the shop window, into a crowd of Vikings waiting for weapons, knocking over several.

"See, now this right here is what I'm talking about! Hiccup, if you ever want to get out there and fight dragons, you need to stop all…"

For a moment Gobber was silent, as if searching for a word.

"This."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, complaining, "But you just pointed to all of me!"

"Yes!" Gobber exclaimed, "That's it! Stop being all of you."

Before Hiccup could find another way to continue the argument, Gobber dropped a sword in his arms with the curt command, "Sharpen, now."

Hiccup worked on the sword uneventfully for almost half a minute, lost in thought until suddenly cries rose up from outside: "Night Fury!" "Get down!" Hiccup dropped the sword and stared out the window, looking for a hint of the elusive Night Fury itself as one of the town's siege catapults on the lower parts of the island was torn apart by its fire. Behind him, Gobber replaced his tongs prosthetic with an axe.

Gobber then proceeded halfway out the door, then stepped back in to give Hiccup some orders. "Man the fort Hiccup! As in Stay. Put… There. Y'know what I mean." He then turned and gave a battle cry, limping out into the fray.

As soon as Gobber was lost in the smoke, Hiccup ran to the back of the shop and re-packed and re-loaded his bola launcher. He quickly tied a rope around its housing to prevent it springing up during transport, then rolled it out of the shop and off toward the hill where several torch towers cast a comforting glow that kept the dragons away. Once again, as he passed dangerously close to Vikings running every which way, cries of "Hiccup!" abounded.

Once Hiccup reached the cliffside just below his home (now a good distance from the village) he dropped to one knee, pulling open the rope over the launcher. The housing swung open and he stood, lifting the weapon to its active height. and pulling the four tension spars into their open and locked position. Then he waited, looking at the one remaining siege catapult to which the village could lay claim. For almost a minute, silence reigned over his grassy knoll, the sounds of battle in the town below fading to near indiscernible as he waited for the Night Fury to show itself.

Suddenly a screeching whistle echoed across the island. Many Vikings in the lower village ducked for cover. Hiccup watched a plasma bolt streak seemingly out of empty sky and decimate the siege tower. There! He caught the outline of a black shape swooping past the bright explosion. He lead his aim forward of the shape's path, closed his eyes in a silent prayer to Odin, then pulled the launcher's release lever.

The launcher fired. The bola flew. Before Hiccup saw the bola hit anything, he noticed with dismay that one of the tension spars - the one secured with the nail made faulty by Astrid's presence earlier in the day - had broken free with the force of this full shot. The tension of the rope connecting the arm to the accelerating bola had sent the wooden chunk hurtling at his face. He closed his eyes, began to raise his arms.

And...


	2. Chapter 2 Lightning and Death Itself

Chapter 2 | Lightning and Death Itself

Hiccup awoke to the sound of an inhuman cry of pain echoing across land and sea. He tried to leap from the ground to a crouched position, but the ache in his head from where the wooden chunk had struck left him dizzy, and still on the ground. He quickly looked to the sky and traced along the path the bola should have taken. In the moonlight, he saw a speck descending toward Raven Point, glinting darkly.

Hiccup stared after the speck, somewhat dumbfounded. "Yes! I hit it! Ah, this fixes everything!" He stood and began to twirl around, dancing in victory. "Did anybody see that?!"

He paused facing away from the sea as an inhuman growl sounded behind him. Slowly, he turned back toward the ocean. A Monstrous Nightmare - a large, dark red dragon with a long neck and almost-as-long rounded snout - walked on its wing tips and hind legs toward him, glaring menacingly and crushing the remains of his launcher. Hiccup's jubilation immediately faded. "Except for you…"

He began to run, screaming in a very un-Viking-like way. Behind him, the Nightmare shot globs of burning saliva in an attempt to kill the scrawny Viking. Thanking the gods for letting him be small, Hiccup managed to evade the Nightmare's burning fury.

Ahead, in the village square, he spotted the base of one of the torch towers and quickly took cover behind it. The Nightmare, furious at losing sight of its prey, bathed the tower in its fiery spittle.

For a moment all was quiet. Hiccup inched to the right, looking around the edge of the burning tower's base. Just as the dragon's head emerged around the edge of the tower to Hiccup's left, Stoick the Vast - chief of Berk - came charging past Hiccup and tackled the dragon, bare-handed. When the two separated, the Nightmare attempted to kill Stoick as it had Hiccup, but all it could produce were a few measly drops of its fiery anger. Stoick smiled at it. "You're all out," he said, before charging in and punching the massive dragon bare-handed in the face. The dragon flapped its wings hard and retreated into the night, while Stoick turned back to the burning torch tower.

As if on cue, the tower collapsed, sending its burning tray of wood rolling down through the many layers of the village. Hiccup remained standing right where the fiery trail of destruction began.

He looked up at Stoick, chief of his tribe, wincing at the sounds of destruction spreading from the torch tower's remains. "Sorry - Dad." As the dragons escaped into the early dawn, Hiccup listened to the fires raging through the village.

When the silence stretched to the point that he thought perhaps everyone else had been petrified, Hiccup finally spoke again. "Okay, but I hit a Night Fury . . . Oahg!"

Stoick hoisted his son into the air by the collar of his shirt, carrying him through the crowd of angry, disappointed, and incredulous Vikings.

"It's not like the last few times, Dad!" Hiccup complained, "I mean I really, actually hit it! It went down just off Raven Point. Lets get a search party out there before . . . "

Stoick had had enough of his son's rambling. He set Hiccup down roughly and turned to give him a lecture. "STOP! Just - stop. Every time you step outside, disaster falls. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"

Hiccup knew he was already in trouble - the deepest trouble. But he couldn't resist the chance to poke at all the other Vikings, every one of whom was twice his size, "Y'know, between you and me, I think the village could do with a little less feeding, don'tcha think?"

Stoick's anger flared. "This isn't a joke, Hiccup. Ach, why can't you follow the simplest orders?"

Realizing the food joke might've gone a bit far, Hiccup tried to defuse the situation with something the other Vikings could relate to, "I - I can't stop myself! I see a dragon and I have to just - kill it, y'know? It's who I am, Dad."

Stoick actually had to stop himself from laughing at that statement. He covered up the emotion with an exasperated sigh. "You are many things, Hiccup, but a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house." He turned to Gobber, who stood amongst the crowd of Vikings. "Make sure he gets there! I have his mess to clean up."

Gobber gently cuffed Hiccup on the side of the head with his intact hand, then led him out of the crowd of Vikings. As he passed the other kids his age, Tuffnut and Snotlout gave some sarcastic remarks, heckling Hiccup over his failures.

"That was quite the performance," Tuff said mildly.

Snotlout's comment was far less forgiving, "I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!"

He, of course, meant that rather than harming both Vikings and dragons, Hiccup had accidentally helped the dragons. Using his near trademarked brand of self-deprecating humor - which by this point in life had become an automatic defense mechanism - Hiccup muttered, "Yeah, yeah. Thanks. I was trying."

Gobber, ever the one to - at least try to - prevent bullying, grabbed the horns of Snotlout's helmet and tossed the boy to the ground, before continuing to push Hiccup out of the crowd.

As the two moved up the path, Hiccup continued to complain. "I really did hit one."

"Sure," Gobber replied.

"He never listens!" Hiccup continued.

"Runs in the family," Gobber joked, though only half in jest.

"Even when he does it's with this disappointed scowl like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich," Hiccup said. He dropped his voice an octave, attempting to mimic that of his father. "Excuse me, barmaid, I'm afraid you've brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts 'n glory on the side." He turned back, gesturing to where he stood at the beginning of his rant. "This here, this is a talkin' fishbone!"

Gobber shook his head, "Now you're thinkin' about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand."

Hiccup gave Gobber an incredulous look. "Thank you for summing that up." He turned to enter the house, but Gobber interrupted him.

"Listen, the point is: Stop trying so hard to be somethin' you're not."

Hiccup looked back at Gobber over his shoulder, hand on the door, and hung his head. "I just want to be one of . . ." his voice cracked, but he continued, ". . . you guys."

At that, Hiccup pushed the door open and shut himself inside. Gobber sighed, turning back down toward the charred village. Hiccup, meanwhile, grabbed his fur vest, notebook and a charcoal pencil, then slipped out the back door and off toward the treeline.

The village may not think he shot down a Night Fury, but he was certain he did, and he was going to find it.

-EoT-

Hiccup had been wandering for hours, searching for the speck he saw fall from the sky the previous night. Sighing at the empty, unchanging forest around him, he pulled out his notebook and flipped through to the crude map he'd drawn of the island. The area around Raven Point was almost black with marks indicating places he'd already searched. In frustration, he pressed his pencil hard into the map, scribbling all over it. Sighing again, he shut the notebook on the pencil, stuffing both back into his light fur vest. "Oh the gods must hate me," he complained to the empty grove. "Some people lose their knife in the mud. No, not me, I manage to lose an _entire dragon_!" In anger, he smacked a low hanging tree branch, bending it. To his dismay and chagrin, it swung back and smacked him in the face, exactly where the bola launcher had the night before had. "Ahg! Stupid . . . what?" He breathed in a gasp of confusion as he noticed that the tree above him had been knocked over. Further along in the direction the tree fell the ground had a deep groove, left by whatever object shattered the tree. The groove started five paces down the hill, then continued another ten paces up and over a small rise.

Curious, Hiccup stepped into the groove and moved to the top of the rise. He looked over the edge of the furrow, down the hill, and spotted a huge black shape laid out on the ground. He gasped, and ducked back behind the hill, fumbling for then drawing his dagger. Carefully, but not exactly quietly, Hiccup descended the hill and hid behind a rock. After a minute, he emerged cautiously from behind the rock and inched closer. The dragon - a Night Fury, for no other dragon had been shot down by his bola launcher - lay still on the ground, unmoving, with its eyes closed. All four of its legs and both its massive wings were bound up by the ropes of his bola. Hiccup once again began to celebrate. "Oh man, I did it! This fixes everything! Yes! I have brought down this mighty . . . "

His celebrations were cut short as he set his foot on the downed dragon's leg - one of its fore paws - and it tried to kick him away. Hiccup stumbled backward and fell against the rock he had been hiding behind, holding his dagger before him as if it would have some way to protect him. The dragon, still entangled in the bola, continued to lie on the ground and merely stared at him.

Hiccup was pretty scared. No, terrified. No, beyond even that. Not one of his inventions had injured a dragon before, but here he had downed not just any dragon, but the dragon that had caused the most damage to his village. It was helpless! He had no reason to be afraid. It couldn't do anything. He tried desperately to build up his courage, muttering to himself. "I'm going to kill you, dragon. I'm going to cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking."

The dragon, being a dragon, gave no signs of understanding his words. Hiccup shouted now. "I am a _Viking_!" He closed his eyes, raised the dagger over his head . . .

. . . and stopped. He had opened his eyes just long enough to see the dragon staring up at him with one of its own great, toxic-green orbs, the eye brimming with intelligence. It knew he'd been the one who shot it down. It knew it was helpless. It knew there was nothing it could do. Hiccup arched his back more, raising the dagger even higher. It closed the eye, accepting its fate.

Hiccup let his hands drop to his sides, dagger held loosely. He looked at the ropes of his bola, entangling the dragon. "I did this," he muttered despondently to himself. He turned to walk away. Let the dragon starve and die so he wouldn't have to kill an intelligent creature himself. But he couldn't even do that. He considered for a moment what he should do, his morals and conscience warring with his Viking values. Finally, he turned back, knelt by the dragon, and began to cut away at the bola. The dragon shifted, realizing its bonds were loosening. When the last of the cords was cut, and the bola fell completely slack, the dragon leaped at Hiccup. The last rope had been across the dragon's forelegs and as it moved the dragon inadvertently plunged its upper torso onto Hiccup's blade, opening a gash up its own neck. Blood of a red almost as dark as a Monstrous Nightmare's wingtips spurted from the wound, soaking Hiccup's clothes. The Night Fury roared in pain and - living up to its name - fury. Hiccup tried to move, to escape, to run, but the dragon had him pinned under a paw. Its head descended toward his, jaws opening wide, teeth appearing to expand further from its gums. As the jaw clamped shut, Hiccup screamed.

And . . .

 **A/N:**

 **Hello everybody! Chapter 2 of Edge of Toothless. Now that I'm back in the same town as my beta, I was able to get her to review this chapter. Should be cleaner than both chapter 1 and Welcome to Berk.**

 **Also, wow, huge reaction for the first couple days and chapters. Thanks guys! I can't pin down a precise schedule for posting, but I can assure you that I'll do at least one chapter per week (because the first nine chapters are written, but not edited.)**

 **Also, yes, Toothless killed Hiccup. Sorry guys! I assure you all it won't happen again.**

 **I hope you enjoyed!**


	3. Chapter 3 Second Chance

Chapter 3 | Second Chance

Hiccup awoke to the sound of an inhuman cry of pain echoing across land and sea. He lay on the ground, dizzy with confusion at the events that had just transpired… or… what? Slowly, he sat up. Just above Raven Point, he thought he saw a glint descending in the moonlight.

In his more immediate vicinity, his bola launcher sat, right-upper tension spar still hanging loosely from the rope connecting it to the launcher. "What." Hiccup wondered aloud. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Monstrous Nightmare stealthily climbing the ridge from opposite his launcher. Just like before, the beast moved toward him low and menacing, one foot crushing said launcher.

"Oh yay, that's fun." Hiccup muttered. Then he ran, screaming, down toward the village. The Nightmare was there, the bola launcher was gone, everything was happening again. The same way. What if he wanted to change something?

As he entered the village square, he thought about once again hiding behind the torch tower. It had saved him last time, but the cost to the village was pretty high. Instead, Hiccup turned at a sharp angle, running toward the ramp to the pastures lower in the village. As he suspected, his father was sprinting up said ramp toward him.

"Dad! Nightmare right behind-" Hiccup shouted.

"I noticed!" the chief replied gruffly, also shouting as he barrelled past Hiccup and up the ramp. At the top of the ramp, one of the Nightmare's wingtips appeared, followed quickly by its head and long neck. As it reared back to spew fiery death down the village's best path between the pastures and the square, Stoick leaped at the beast, grabbing its jaws and clamping them shut bare handed. At the sudden extra weight on its head, the Nightmare's neck slumped to the ground.

"Rope its mouth shut! Now!" the beast-wrestling man ordered.

"I-ah, I haven't got any rope!" Hiccup stammered.

Above the two, a black fur-clad figure stopped at the edge of the cliff. The Viking shouted, "This is a job for the Snotman!" He then jumped off the cliff, and landed on the tip of the Nightmare's muzzle not currently covered by Viking chieftain.

Sitting on the snout of the dragon, he suddenly looked confused, "Wait, what are we doing?"

"Rope!" the frustrated chief shouted.

A short-haired blonde head looked over the cliff. "Here!" Astrid shouted, her words followed by a bundle of rope. Snotlout, still confused by the three meter drop, rolled aside as Hiccup pushed him out of the way. The scrawnier of the boys then tied the dropped rope around the dragon's snout, several times for good measure.

"Thank you son." Stoick said, the strain in his arms lessening. Meanwhile, the body of the Nightmare continued thrashing back and forth in the square. "MEN!" Stoick shouted in that general direction, "Hold this beast down!"

Several Vikings in the square - that had been waiting at the forge for weapons - saw the chief holding down the Nightmare's head bare-handed and ran to help.

"Wait, dad, I don't think that it's out of fire!" Hiccup warned.

In the square, a Viking grabbed the flailing Nightmare's tail, then recoiled in pain as the dragon burst into flames. Stoick, spotting the fire moving up the dragon's neck before it reached the head, pushed off. With a flap of its great wingspan, the dragon took off into the night.

"That was awesome!" a slightly dazed male voice shouted from above the ramp, "flaming Nightmare in the middle of town!" The boy's words were followed by the clang of metal on metal.

"Not helping Tuff." came Astrid's voice. She'd whacked him over the helm with the flat of her axe.

A muttered, "that was fun, do it again." was drowned out by the chief's next words:

Stoick stomped the singed deck in irritation. "We almost had that beast." he said. Then he turned to Hiccup and the still-dazed Snotlout.

"Hiccup," Stoick said, "did you just actually help me muzzle that beast, without burning the town down?"

Hiccup noticed crowds of Vikings gathering at the top and bottom of the ramp, to watch the father-son interaction. "Well yeah, but I don't think that's the most-" Hiccup began.

Stoick clasped his son's shoulders, "This, son, is the day I've been waiting for. You're ready for dragon training."

"Wait, dad," Hiccup started again, "There was this-"

"Why does Useless get dragon training?" Snotlout shouted petulantly from beside them. Hiccup thought he saw the Viking chief stifle an eyeroll.

"Because he just took on a Nightmare, intentionally. You're already in dragon training!" Stoick said.

"Oh, yeah, I knew that." Snotlout acknowledged.

Stoick turned back to Hiccup, "I knew you'd do it eventually. You've got my blood, after all!" The chief gave Hiccup a friendly pat on the shoulder, which sent the smaller Viking stumbling.

"Uh, yeah, dad, I should tell you-" Hiccup tried.

"Why wait until tomorrow to start training our young?" Stoick shouted to the amassing Vikings in the morning light, "Noon today, dragon training begins!"

"Are you even listening to me?" Hiccup complained, though his words were lost in the cheers of the vikings all around the ramp.

"Gobber!" Stoick shouted up the ramp. The smith pushed his way through the crowd, mouth slightly agape. "Take Hiccup back home, I'll be there as soon as I deal with raid cleanup." the chief ordered.

Gobber nodded, taking Hiccup's shoulder. "Great," said Hiccup, "Huge popularity surge and dad still won't listen to me."

-EoT-

As they walked up the path toward his house, Hiccup turned to Gobber. "Gobber, I need your help understanding something."

"Is it your father?" The smith questioned, "I'ave been tryin' to understand your dad for as long as I've known 'im, and I still ha'en't a clue."

"Well," Hiccup started, glad someone was finally listening, "during the raid, I sort-of maybe left the forge, to go use my bola launcher."

Gobber sighed, "I figured tha' when I saw it missin', and found you n' your father in the middle o' tha village."

"Ok, this is where it gets weird. I mean, really weird." Hiccup warned.

"I'm listenin'." said Gobber.

Hiccup stopped at the door to his house. Taking a deep breath, he explained, "I shot down a Night Fury, got attacked by a Monstrous Nightmare, the Nightmare burned down the village-square torch tower and a portion of the village, I went out to find the Night Fury, I…" He paused to take a breath, "stabbed the Night Fury with my dagger, and it broke loose of the bola and killed me."

Gobber's unibrow was lopsided with skepticism. "And… Y'did all that and got tha village repaired in, what, two minutes?"

"Well," Hiccup said, "Then I woke up, on the hill with my bola launcher, and got attacked by the Nightmare again."

Gobber's face twisted, as if he was thinking. Hiccup was about to ask if he was choking when the smith's face lit up with an idea. "Oh! I know! It's a vision from the gods!"

"How does that even..." Hiccup asked quizzically.

"Aye!" Gobber confirmed, "I had a similar vision the night after I fought that Bone Napper!"

"No, Gobber, please not the Bone Napper story!" the younger Viking complained.

"Relax Hiccup," the smith said, "I ha'en't got time. Too much ta do. Fo' me an' you. Get inside! You gotta rest up so ya' can learn ta' fight dragons!" At this, Gobber gave Hiccup a light push, and Hiccup turned and entered the house.

"That's just great. I don't even… gods sending visions to the scrawny viking kid who couldn't even kill a dragon in his dreams." Hiccup complained to the empty living room. The room sat in darkness, silent, as a slight chill settled behind him from the door he'd just shut. "Yay me." he said, bending down to light the fire.

Unable to find the house flintstone, Hiccup used the old rubbing-sticks method of firelighting. Just when he finally got a tiny flame, after maybe ten minutes of rubbing, his father opened the front door. In a moment, the tiny spark was extinguished, the kindling blown across the floor.

"Hi, dad." Hiccup said halfheartedly.

"Son." Stoick acknowledged, "Dragon training starts in two hours, are you sure you don't want to be resting?"

"Well, see, I think I should mention that I don't even want-" Hiccup began, but was then cut off by a traitorous yawn from his exhausted body.

"You did well in that raid." Stoick affirmed, "You weren't prepared for everything - anything really - but when someone else got you the tools you handled yourself well."

"Dad, I don't wan-" Hiccup tried, one last time.

"Stop, I don't want to hear any more excuses. You need rest." the chief cut him off, "Bed. Now. Gather your strength."

Hiccup sighed, "Fine." Turning from the abysmally un-charred fire-pit, Hiccup climbed the oaken stairs to his room.

 **A/N:**

 **I believe this is the shortest chapter I've written. Sorry guys! Still, I'll have the next one up in a week, and it's 2.5k words before editing.**

 **So, first time around the loop. That happened. Hope you guys enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 4 Nadder Runaround

Chapter 4 | Nadder Runaround

Hiccup didn't get a wink of sleep as the sun slowly ascended into the sky. Instead, he worried about dragon training and the so-called vision he'd had of the Night Fury. He'd met the dragon, released it, then _died_. It seemed more clear that the gods wanted him to _not_ meet the Night Fury than to take the fight to it, as Gobber had done with the Bone Napper. On top of that, why would the gods give him a vision in which he found it _morally wrong_ to kill a _dragon_? That wouldn't be any way to suggest killing said dragon. Gobber's interpretation of events seemed even crazier than his story of the Bone Napper (Hammerheaded Yak-Whale-Sharks included).

Perhaps the opposite was true - the gods do _not_ want him to kill dragons. Well, good luck with that Thor and Odin above, because now giving him a preview of events has put him into Dragon Training: He _has_ to go fight dragons.

As the irony occurred to him, he realized that the sun outside had reached its apex; he was late, again!

Quickly as the scrawny Viking was able, he donned his vest and ran out the front door of the house. Down the village path, through the square and off toward the Kill Ring he ran, the Vikings he passed hardly even noticing his presence, as long as he remained out from underfoot.

As he finally crossed the last few steps of the log bridge leading up to the Ring - a great stone pit covered with iron bars and surrounded by spectator stands (who knew fire-breathing-pest extermination would be a spectator sport?) - he heard chatter from the kids up ahead, who had arrived more on-time than Hiccup. (Interestingly, it seemed he was working with the fire brigade's class.)

Entering the gate, he began to make out the words of their conversation, Ruffnut piped up, "I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back."

A slightly less enthusiastic (for the injury, but no less for the fighting) Astrid spoke, "Yeah, It's only fun if you get a scar out of it."

Without a trace of the other's enthusiasm - voice dripping instead with sarcasm - Hiccup spoke, "Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it."

Tuffnut didn't even turn around to give him a look, "Oh look, great Mr. I-Can't-Tie-Down-A-Nightmare is here."

"Oh yes," Hiccup agreed sarcastically, "Because it's so easy to use a flammable rope to tie down a dragon that _lights itself on fire_."

Ruffnut punched her twin brother, laughing to his detriment, "C'mon, even I knew that was a crazy thing to do!"

Gobber finally broke in. "Alrigh', enough with the chit-cha'. Now, in these cages are a bunch of nasty dragons, some of the deadliest species out there, that all attack our li'l island on a semi-regular basis. Since some of our recruits," he glanced pointedly at Hiccup, "can't seem to arrive on time, I'll keep the explanation of what you're doing short. The weapons rack has damaged and destroyed weapons. You all 'ill be facin' a Nadder. Can anyone tell me what we'll be doing with the mangled weapons?"

Fishlegs, apparently able to make the connections Gobber suggested, squealed in delight and raised his hand, jumping up and down in place. Everyone else wore expressions of confusion. Gobber let them think for a moment, then sighed out, "Fishlegs…"

"Oh! Ok," Fish began. "So The Book Of Dragons says that the Deadly Nadder has, like, the hottest fire of all dragons. I think it's like sixteen, whereas even the Night Fury gets only up to thirteen - based on its destructive power and the afterflame burn, obviously, because nobody ever got one in a controlled environment and-"

"'Legs! Focus," Gobber commanded.

Fishlegs' face fell a bit. "Oh, right. Sorry. So you want us to use the Nadder's fire to heat up the weapons so you can fix them. That's why there is an anvil over in the entrance gate."

"Thank you!" Gobber applauded. "Very good, Fishlegs!" He proceeded to walk over to one of the cages built into the wall, setting his hand on the lever.

"Wait!" cried Snotlout, speaking up for the first time since Hiccup's arrival. "Aren't you going to teach us some strategy to avoid getting our arms burnt off in the fire and stuff?"

Hiccup, meanwhile, backed away from the group and began to run towards the rack of broken weapons. Gobber decided to humor Snotlout for a moment. "I believe," the smith said slowly, "in learnin' on the job." At this, he opened the cage door and then began running at a limping gait across the Ring toward the entrance gate - and its anvil. The other recruits looked amongst themselves incredulously, then ran off after Hiccup.

The dragon - which very much resembled an accident with blue-dyed leather, teeth, scaly hide and a chicken - burst out of the cage, looking very upset for having been cooped up. Spotting the adolescent Vikings across the arena hefting twisted metal, it charged.

Hiccup managed to lift what might have once been a sword (but would now make a better short-handled mace) and sprinted to his left, counter-clockwise around the arena. Fishlegs followed, easily carrying a mace that had partially melted and elongated. Behind them, Ruff and Tuff carried off two maces that had fused together. They ran clockwise around the arena. Astrid and Snotlout remained next to the weapons rack. Snotlout leaned on a sword that somehow during the last raid had lost all of its edges and was closer to a rod. Astrid hefted a battle-axe-turned-mace.

"So," Snotlout began, his voice taking on the attempted-seduction tone he constantly follows Astrid with, "anyway I'm moving into my parents' basement. You should come by to work out. You look like you work out!"

Astrid paid Snotlout himself no mind, instead holding the end of her battle-axe-turned-mace in front of his face. "Wha?" he began, then remembered the Nadder charging across the arena. Apparently, Vikings weren't the only creatures who hated the sound of Snotlout's voice. The Nadder stopped before the two young Vikings, completely ignored Astrid, and fired a blast of flame straight through her mace-axe-thing at Snotlout. The male Viking, to his credit, was able to hide behind the weapons rack before he too was roasted, but his edgeless-sword didn't come with him and fell to the ground, still cold.

"Astrid, nice work. Get those weapons over to me quick before they cool!" Gobber called from the gate. She turned to look at the rack and noticed that, while the rack was on fire, all the weapons were just as hot as her axe-mace-thing. Grabbing as many cool handles as she could (about four plus the axe-mace-thing) she made her way over to Gobber. The Nadder lost interest after firing, and left to follow the bickering twins.

"Get your hands off my mace!" Tuffnut shouted.

"There's like a million weapons on the rack!" Ruffnut complained.

"This one is big and fuse-headed, like me. Take that warhammer over there, it looks like a flower. Girls like flowers, right?"

Ruffnut wrenched the fuse-headed mace out of Tuffnut's hands and whacked him over the head with it. "Oops, now this one has blood on it."

Tuffnut recovered, and grabbed the second handle of the fuse-head mace. Their shouting resumed unintelligibly, but was interrupted as the Nadder ran right between them, burning the mace-heads, which caused them to unfuse and fall to the ground.

"Ruff, Tuff" Gobber shouted over the banging of his hammer-prosthetic on the anvil. "Weapons here, now!"

Another third around the arena, Fishlegs and Hiccup hid underneath a wooden board leaning against the wall, weapons sticking out. The Nadder looked curiously at the wooden-board-with-arms.

"You think it knows we're here?" Fishlegs whispered to Hiccup.

The dragon perked up at the sound.

"It does now!" Hiccup cried, taking off toward the weapon rack. Fishlegs, meanwhile, just held the weapon in front of the board he hid behind. The Nadder squawked, fired a short blast at the wood, then ran off after the fleeing, scrawny Viking.

Fishlegs emerged from the now-burning lean-to, and found his weapon white-hot. "Cool!"

Hiccup ran a quarter of the way to the weapons rack before he tripped. Curling up on the ground as the Nadder charged after him, he held his sword-turned-mace above his head, hoping the dragon would heat the weapon as it had for all the other Vikings. His hand shook as the Nadder stopped just one (human) stride length from where Hiccup lay on the ground, staring intently at… the mace-sword. As it shook in his hand, light reflected off the damaged metal and it seemed to change color slightly.

"Attracted to the shiny stuff?" Hiccup muttered under his breath.

Just inside the gate, Gobber shouted across the Ring, "HICCUP!"

The Nadder, disturbed by the sudden loud noise, chirped its annoyance and let out a blast of flame, heating the head of the sword-mace-thing, but also lighting the handle on fire. Hiccup screeched at the sudden heat, the Nadder squawked indignantly at the much closer and louder noise than the smith's fear, and prepared to blast fire again, this time aiming closer to the ground.

Just then, Gobber's hook grabbed one of its fangs and pulled its head to the side, its fires scorching empty ground.

"That's a good eight weapons outta you. Makes up for my time outta the forge. C'mon, beastie," the smith muttered at the dragon, which was more than a little reluctant to return to its cage. After he'd locked it back inside, he turned back to Hiccup. "Wha' were you thinkin', lad? You gotta keep on your feet!" Getting in close to his student, the smith almost growled. "A dragon will never, _ever_ , just stop fighting. Y' can't distract it, only disorient it. If you want to stay alive, ya' gotta learn to be the same way. Learn that now, or y' aren't gonna have a chance."

Gobber turned back to the class. "That's it for now. Meet me here tomorrow mornin' just after sunrise. We need ta get another sixteen weapons done before the boats leave."

"'Boats leave'?" Snotlout echoed in question. "What boats?"

Fishlegs piped up. "Stoick talked the town into doing another nest search!"

Hiccup didn't hear Snotlout's reply as he walked down the bridge away from the Ring.

The sun was near the horizon, casting long shadows through the trees around Hiccup. After the whole Kill Ring and nearly-dying thing, he'd meant to go home, get some sleep, prepare for tomorrow. That would have been the Viking thing to do. That would have been the sane thing to do.

"Then again," he said to the surrounding trees, "what part of the last few days has been at all sane?"

The trees didn't respond. He was out on Raven Point again, looking for the Night Fury - again. Because that had gone so well last time. "Why, exactly, am I out here?" he continued to complain. "Hell, maybe the dragon got the same experiential-vision too and decided to break free and fly off earlier today. I know I would."

He considered the ridiculousness of the statement, given that he was doing exactly the opposite by coming out here looking.

Hiccup hung his head. "What am I even doing out … Gah!"

He walked right into a branch at eye level, which proceeded to get tangled in his hair. If he'd had his head up, it would've smacked him in the face. In a moment of confusion, he realized just which branch it was. It was the branch that he smacked yesterday just before he'd found the Night Fury.

He looked up at the tree it was attached to. The tree swayed imperceptibly in the wind, trunk unbroken. Further down the hill and up the next rise, no sign of crash damage. No groove of upturned soil. He jogged down where he thought it should be, and over the rise in that tiny clearing with the rocks there was - no dragon.

"Well, this was stupid."

Hiccup sighed, his breath echoed by a nearby dragon's roar. Suddenly alert again, the young Viking searched the surrounding trees with his eyes. Not too far away, he heard wingbeats and claws scrabbling at rock. Staying low to the ground, he ran in that direction.

Soon Hiccup found himself looking over a sharp, rocky drop perhaps ten or twenty times taller than he was into a small clearing filled with grass. The center of the clearing contained a small lake, and scrabbling around the exterior was the Night Fury. It scrabbled at the edges, trying to make its way out of the cove but only managing to scratch and flap its way three-quarters of the way up any of the walls. When it tried to fly to the opposite wall, the flapping motion would cause it to tilt until its wings were vertical and its attempts to correct its trajectory with its tail sent it crashing to the ground. Hiccup remained low against the lip of the cove's surrounding cliffs, observing all of this.

He also noticed a couple of ropes floating in the lake. After a moment of consideration, he realized these were the ropes of the bola. The only plausible explanation, he reasoned, was that the dragon had altered its crash trajectory to land in the lake, then used the freedom of floating in the water to untangle itself from the ropes.

Just then, the Night Fury gave another attempt at climbing the cliff opposite him. Realizing he had a perfect opportunity to sketch the dragon with its wings extended, Hiccup drew out his notebook and a charcoal stick. After just a few moments, he had its outline and major details drawn.

It fell back to the earth, swinging wildly about its mid-wings just behind and below its main wings. It landed on its back in front of the lake and, after rolling onto its feet, its head snapped out at some fish below the surface.

"Why don't you just… fly away?" Hiccup muttered. He compared his sketch to the dragon now walking in circles before the lake. He rubbed out a portion of the tail that didn't exist on the real subject, then realized how that one change affected its symmetry.

"Boats travel in a straight line when they're symmetrical. Maybe dragons can't fly when they're not symmetrical?" he said to himself, quietly. He backed away from the edge, keeping a tight grip on any loose items that might slip and fall. As soon as he was further from the edge than the closest tree, he sprang up and began running back home.

He'd shot down a Night Fury, and now it can't fly. He should tell the town and get some better warriors out there - warriors who didn't find the dragons too "intelligent" to kill.

Or maybe that'd anger the gods. Odin knows he already had enough bad graces coming from them, what with burning down half the village _himself_ every month. Hiccup wracked his brain for a solution. He was too weak (mentally and physically) to kill the dragon. He was too weak (mentally) to bring the village to kill the dragon.

What now?

Rather than focus on questions he couldn't answer, Hiccup jogged off through the forest and returned home to sleep.

 **A/N:**

 **Hello readers! Sorry about being a day late with this one. My beta has a real job doing writing for real money, and couldn't deal with my story until today.**

 **Please don't kill me!**

 **Anyway, the "Wounded" scene for all y'all. Hope you enjoy!**


	5. Chapter 5 Please Don't Kill Me

Chapter 5 | Please Don't Kill Me

The past two (or three? - it depended on whether the "vision" actually counted against him) sleepless days weighed heavily on Hiccup's mind as he tried to sleep. Eventually all the time he had spent awake managed to pull his eyes shut into deep, thankfully vision-less unconsciousness.

The next morning, Hiccup awoke before the sun had risen. Stretching lazily, he pulled on a green tunic. He went downstairs, but his father had already gone out to begin chiefing. It was rare that Hiccup would meet his father at home, so this wasn't much of a surprise. At a pleasant walking pace, he left the house and strolled off through the village toward the Kill Ring.

As Hiccup ducked under the outer gate of the Kill Ring, the last of the sun's disk rose silently above the horizon. Gobber and the rest of the class - excepting Fishlegs - were already there.

"Alrigh' class, grab some o' these mangled weapons off the rack," the old smith lectured. "We've got a couple of Nadders from the last raid, so assuming no one tries to kill themselves today . . ." he gave a pointed glance at Hiccup, ". . .we should be running this exercise all mornin'."

"Yeah, Hiccup," piped up Tuffnut. "You're not supposed to kill yourself in Dragon Training."

Hiccup sighed. "Don't I recall you saying something about mauling?"

"That was me!" Ruffnut said indignantly. "And a couple of scratches aren't going to kill me like having my head burnt off." She stopped to consider this for a moment. "Maybe Tuffnut would survive that. You want to try?"

"Yeah! That sounds . . ." Tuffnut began excitedly.

He was cut off by Astrid. "Like a terrible idea! Guys, just grab some weapons and focus!"

"What she said!" said Snotlout. Astrid huffed in annoyance.

"Wait, guys, where's Fish?" Hiccup asked.

"Who knows?" said Tuff.

"Who cares?" asked Ruff.

"I'm he- . . ." Fishlegs began, ducking under the gate, but was interrupted by a huge yawn. ". . .-re."

"Fishlegs!" Gobber said. "You're late, and did ya' sleep at all?"

"Well, a little. I stayed up most of the night reading the Book of Dragons again."

"And that's going to help you, how, exactly?" taunted Snotlout. "I thought you had it memorized."

"Couldn't remember a Nadder's shot limit." Fishlegs yawned again. "It's six."

"That's right," Gobber affirmed. "One for each of you. Now pick up those weapons! We ha'ent got all day."

Today's Nadder run-around went much like the previous day's, though there were fewer almost-deaths. Astrid got three weapons fixed, and Snotlout managed to fix one (accidentally) while trying (and failing) to hit on Astrid. Ruff and Tuff unfused one weapon into two. Hiccup and Fishlegs managed to get one done each.

"That's all six shots outta this one. Good job with that mace, Fishlegs!" Gobber shouted, as he limped over to lock the first Nadder of the day back in its cage. The Nadder put up little fight as he dragged it away.

"Uhh… Gobber, why don't these Nadders use their tail spikes?" Fishlegs asked, not sure if he'd like the answer.

"Tail spikes? You mean their tail gets more spiny than it already is? I nearly got whacked over the head with that!" Snotlout shouted.

"Please," Astrid chided. "The tail was three paces away from you that whole swing."

"It doesn't just get spikier, all the spikes have venom, and then with a particular motion the Nadder can throw the spikes. It sorta flicks its tail and . . ." Fishlegs began to explain excitedly.

"We gave it some kinda' potion Gothi cooked up," Gobber said. "I think she called it a muscle relaxant, or some-such. Anyway, none of 'em are shootin' spines, and that makes it safer to train all o' you on the job, like I do. Anyway, are you all ready?"

Belatedly, the kids noticed Gobber had already moved to another door, and was about to open it.

"Oh funfunfun!" Hiccup shouted, running toward the weapon rack, which Gobber had restocked during the conversation. The other kids made noises of agreement, running in the same direction.

Gobber opened the gate, and the new Nadder came bursting out.

Other than running for their lives and dodging dragon's fire by mere finger widths, nothing much exciting happened. Astrid got three weapons heated up. Snotlout managed to focus for once and heated two. Ruff and Tuff fought over a three-way-fused weapon, and fixed two parts of it (while the third got fused with the ground). 'Legs and Hiccup fixed (together) one two-way fused weapon. Total count for the morning: 17 weapons.

"Well, that should be enough repairs to equip the people going on the nest hunt, at least, the ones in one boat," Gobber told the class. "And I've got enough stocked up for the other two, so, that's it for this morning."

"Thank Thor!" Snotlout exclaimed. "I thought I was going to die out there!"

Ruffnut chuckled. "I wish Tuffnut had."

Moments later, the two were engaged in one of their usual brawls.

"So, what are we doing tomorrow?" Astrid asked Gobber. "The boats will be gone, so we'll be starting actual training then, right?"

"Well," the smith began slowly. "I can't tell you exactly what, because then you'll have time ta prepare. However, yes, you'll all be facing a different class of dragon, and focusing on fighting rather than simply not dying."

"That sounds good. I mean, that's good, right Astrid?" Snotlout stammered.

She gave a disgusted snort and stalked off.

"She totally likes me," he said, once she was well out of earshot.

Gobber turned to his remaining students. "We'll be dining in the Great Hall together tonight, team building n' all, so someone tell Astrid if you see her. Just after sundown, Great Hall, left hand… er… hook… tables. Y'know what I mean."

The twins practically rolled out of the Kill Ring's gate, still throwing slaps and punches at one another. Snotlout walked out, swaggering as he usually did. Fishlegs walked out like a normal person (who weighed as much as a yak) and Hiccup walked out diminutively. Just another day at the Ring.

-EoT-

Hiccup found himself in the forest again. It was a terrible idea to come out here yet again, and he was probably going to get himself killed permanently this time, but he couldn't hold in his curiosity. An honest-to-Thor _Night Fury_ , flightless, that HE had shot down. And what's weirder, he couldn't stand to kill it.

And he didn't think the gods wanted him to.

The whole situation was too surreal. In what seemed like moments (though was in reality minutes) he found himself standing two dozen paces from the cove's edge, part way behind a tree trunk. He looked around, and noticed a small cave under some fallen rocks that appeared to lead through into the cove.

Carefully, and as quietly as he could, he slipped into the entrance and came out halfway down the cliff wall, overlooking most of the cove. From here, additional fallen stones provided a path down to the cove's floor. He stayed low to the edge of the cave - on his hands and knees - looking for any sign of the Night Fury.

His hand brushed something cold on the ground that he'd missed seeing because he'd been so low down. Hiccup lifted the flat, round, black object closer to his face as he rested on his elbows.

It was a dragon scale, of a colour he'd only seen on one dragon, and that no other Viking had ever seen.

A low growl emanated from directly before him. As Hiccup lowered the dragon scale, he stared directly into the eyes of its previous owner.

"Uhh, hi?" he said, very quietly.

The dragon's growl grew. Before hiccup could summon another word, he was flying through the air from the cliff face. He splashed down in water that, after he stood up, came to just over his knees. After some spluttering and wiping to get the water clear of his face, he spotted the dragon thirty paces down the shoreline watching him warily.

Hiccup wiped his eyes again. The dragon didn't shift at all. Slowly, Hiccup sloshed his way out of the water, perpendicular to the dragon. Back on shore, the dragon gave him another low growl, along with a meaningful glance toward his right side. Hiccup patted himself down, moving his fur vest out of the way and exposing the dagger sheathed in his belt. Once visible, the dragon's gaze (and its ire) shifted to the weapon. Slowly, using only the tips of his fingers, Hiccup drew the knife from his belt and dropped it an arm's length to his right.

The dragon's growl did not diminish. It gave another flick of its head, this time between the dagger and the water. Carefully, keeping his eyes on the dragon, Hiccup lifted the dagger with the toe of his boot and tossed it into the lake. It landed with a light sploosh, but he didn't look away from the creature that probably weighed thirty times what he did.

The Night Fury gave one last warning snarl, then flapped hard into the air. Hiccup watched its tail snap out instinctively to correct its flight path out of the cove, but with the missing tailfin this only served to unbalance the dragon, sending it flailing behind some rocks on the opposite side of the cove's lake. It shook its head as it emerged, as if to clear it, then used a concentrated purple-white flame to scorch a patch of ground where it curled up to sleep.

Hiccup figured that, given he was still alive, today went pretty well. Then he considered how much of an understatement that was. That he was still alive, dripping on the shoreline of this cove no more than a hundred paces from a sleeping dragon with every reason and opportunity to kill him? Today was a miracle. The worst the Night Fury had done was throw him off a cliff - safely.

What does it want? What does he want?

Carefully - trying to avoid making any noise that would wake the creature - Hiccup climbed the fallen stones he'd spotted upon his entry, and exited the cove through the small cave. Once he was out of sight of the cove, he took off at a jog, though he wasn't sure whether he felt fear, relief, or just a need to be home.

As Hiccup entered the Great Hall, he heard Gobber's voice carry over the chatter of Vikings at other tables. "Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?"

Astrid spoke up immediately, cutting off the other kids as if this had been gnawing at her. "I mis-timed my somersault dive during the second Nadder's attack. It was sloppy. I nearly got burned."

"Yeah," Ruffnut piped up sarcastically. "We noticed."

Snotlout tried to defend her, to her annoyance. "No, no, you were great. That was so… Astrid."

Hiccup picked up a plate of food and a mug of water. He saw Gobber shake his head at the other kid's antics. "She's right," said the smith. "You have to be tough on yourselves."

As Hiccup passed the table, headed for the nearest empty one, Gobber continued speaking. "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"

"Uh, he showed up?" Ruffnut answered.

"He didn't get eaten," Tuffnut added.

"He's never where he should be," Astrid said icily.

"Thank you, Astrid," Gobber cut them off. "You all need to live and breathe this stuff." He cleared a spot on the table where the rest of the class was eating, and dropped a worn book there. Hiccup sat at the next empty table over. "The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of." Outside, thunder roared and a light rain started. "No attacks tonight. Study up." The smith turned and walked off, likely to finish some forge work.

The other kids seemed insulted. "Wait, you mean read?" Tuffnut said.

"While we're still alive?" joined his twin sister.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you about?" Snotlout complained.

Fishlegs spoke up excitedly. "Oh! I've read it, like, seven times. There's this one dragon that sprays boiling water at your face, and, and this other dragon that buries itself for like a week . . ."

Tuffnut made a shushing motion with one hand. "Yeah, that sounds great. See, there was a chance I was going to read that…"

"... But now…" chimed in Ruffnut, trailing off.

"You guys read. I'll go kill stuff," Snotlout said, getting up from the table. Ruff and Tuff followed. Fishlegs followed, resuming his babble about the various dragons he'd read about.

Hiccup got up from where he was and moved toward the table abandoned by everyone but Astrid, who was still finishing some food. "So…" he began nonchalantly, "I guess we'll sha..."

She stood abruptly. "Read it." Then she turned and left.

"Oh, ah, so all mine then. Wow, okay. So I'll see you, uhh. . . " Hiccup began. The door to the Great Hall slammed. ". . . tomorrow."

-EoT-

Much later that night, when the roaring fire had died to embers and everyone else had gone to bed, Hiccup turned to the book with a couple of candles. Carefully, he opened its leather cover to the first page, and muttered as he read.

"Dragon classifications. Strike class, Fear class, Mystery class. Thunderdrum, lives underwater and… concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Timberjack, razor-sharp wings that can cut down forests. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Scauldron, sprays scalding water at its victims. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Changewing, even newly-hatched young can spray acid. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight. Gronckle, Zippleback, The Skrill, Boneknapper, The Whispering Death. Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside-out. Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous, kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight…"

His reading was interrupted by a loud boom of thunder from outside. He turned to the door, and after a moment of nothing out of the ordinary, turned back to the book.

"Night Fury. Speed: unknown. Size: unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: hide and pray it does not find you."

He thought to himself for a moment, then drew out his still-damp journal. Turning to the page with the Night Fury sketch, he dropped it on the blank space of the Night Fury's page.

"Well, it found me, and here I am."

 **A/N:**

 **So sorry for the lateness of this chapter.**

 **Actually, I'm not. I'm no good at this emotions thing, at least not this late at night.**

 **Here's the new chapter, weighing in at just under 2.5k words. Hiccup and Toothless actually met without any violence! Hip-hip hooray!**

 **So… Enjoy. I'm going to go work on chapters 9 and 10 some more. They're coming in way too short.**


	6. Chapter 6 Boulder Class

Chapter 6 | Boulder Class:

Hiccup slunk stealthily into his home. His father was there, staring intently at the pile of coals in their hearth as he prodded them. The massive red-bearded Viking's expression was unreadable, as if he was lost in thought - or daydreaming. Surprisingly, the chief even had his helmet off. This didn't bode well.

If he was quiet enough, perhaps he could get upstairs without some really awkward ...

"Hiccup."

"Hi - dad."

His father stood, turning away from the fire. "Hiccup, we need to talk."

"Uh, okay. About...?" He tried to sound calm. His dad couldn't know that he'd been visiting a dragon without killing it. The overwhelmingly creepy atmosphere created by the fire's light was probably just …

"You've probably heard that the tribe is going on another nest hunt."

"Oh! That. Yes. Yeah, kinda... Kinda the talk of dragon training."

"Good. Right. Anyway, while I'm gone, focus on your training. Do well, and … "

"Well, actually - dad," Hiccup interrupted the elder Haddock. "I was thinking. We have a lot of dragon-fighting Vikings, but do we have enough bread-making Vikings, or small home-repair Vikings?"

"You'll need this," his father said, lifting a war-axe from the back of his belt like it weighed as much as one of Hiccup's pencils. Given their size difference, it probably did - relatively. When his dad dropped the axe into Hiccup's arms, it certainly didn't feel as light as a pencil. Then again, the weight wasn't entirely physical.

"Dad, I don't want to fight dragons."

"Bah, come on. Yes you do."

"Rephrase, dad. I _can't_ kill dragons."

"Ah, but you _will_ kill dragons."

"No, I'm really very extra sure that I won't."

"It's time for you to learn."

"Can you not hear m-?"

"Hiccup! This is serious," his father interrupted, trying to regain control of the conversation.

"This conversation is feeling very one-sided."

His father sighed. "Look, I know you're not the strong Viking that you want to be. You have an opportunity here to get stronger, though."

Hiccup snorted. "Fine, I just... Whatever. Thanks. I think."

"I got you something else, as well."

"Oh?"

His father pulled out a helmet, with two curved white horns. He adjusted one of the horns in its socket, and handed the helm to his son. As Hiccup reached for it, the axe he'd previously barely supported with both hands dropped to the floor. Lifting the helm as if it could fall apart at any moment, he reverently explored its metal surface. "Dad, I … "

"It's half your mother's breastplate."

As if it had suddenly caught fire, Hiccup pulled his exploring hand away from the helm, though his other hand continued holding it by one horn. His father tapped his own helm, which was hanging from his belt. "Matching set. Keeps her close."

"Wow. Thanks," Hiccup said, though he wasn't certain whether he was sincere. (His mother's breastplate? What? That's just so… he didn't even have words.)

His father took the helmet from his hands, and set it gently atop the boy's head. "When you're out in that Ring, or doing any battle, really, you're carrying all of us with you." He reached down and lifted the axe, placing it upright in his son's grip. "You walk like us. You talk like us." He reached out and tapped the new helm. "You think like us. Just… while you're out there, try to lose some of… this."

"Dad, you just gestured to all of me."

His father's face was unreadable as he stood at his full height, looking down. The silence pressed in on the two for almost a full minute, interrupted only by the crackling of the fire.

"Right. So. Train hard. I'll be back… probably," his father finished.

"And I'll be here. Maybe," Hiccup muttered as his father turned to his own bottom-story bedroom. Quietly, barely supporting the axe he'd been given, Hiccup climbed the stairs and dropped into his bed, leaving the axe propped up by the footboard.

"Thanks for all the support in my life decisions, _dad_ ," Hiccup groaned as he dozed off to a very late sleep.

-EoT-

Hiccup awoke to a much brighter room. Sitting up, he looked out the window. The sun was over the horizon - obvious even through the threateningly dreary-grey cloud cover - and, as he watched, the bottom of the glowing sphere separated from the horizon. Late again. Helmet sliding uncomfortably around on his head, Hiccup leaped out of bed and struggled to lift his new axe from the floor. He ran downstairs, out the door, and down the path into the village. Thanks to the weight of the axe, that took longer than he'd hoped. When he finally got to the Ring, Gobber already had his hand on one of the cage handles.

"Hiccup! Now ya' get here," the smith complained.

"Sorry!" Hiccup replied, slipping under the gate. "Stayed up late reading the Book."

" _You_ stayed up late _reading_?" Ruffnut asked sarcastically, as Hiccup joined the group of armed teens.

" _Never_ would've guessed," Tuffnut added, equally sarcastically.

"Well, at least Fishlegs has a friend now," Snotlout said, loudly, much to the heavier boy's chagrin.

Gobber cleared his throat, hand still resting on the cage lever. Everybody shut up.

"Alrigh'. Let's get started," he said, with a hint of glee that worried Hiccup. The lever descended, and the smith began limping away along the outside edge of the ring.

"Wait, which dragon is …?" Fishlegs began to ask, but was interrupted by an angry Gronckle bashing open the cage door. It fired a blast at the center of the group of teens.

They scattered, each heading in a different direction. The dragon looked like two brown boulders cemented together, with a mouth on one end and tiny wings at the center. It buzzed around the arena, bumping into the metal ceiling a couple of times. Gobber, now safely ensconced in the Kill Ring's entry-way on the opposite side of the interior gate, shouted out to the group: "Today is about survival. If you get blasted… _you're dead._ Quick, what's the firs' thing you need when fighting a dragon?"

"A doctor?" Hiccup answered sarcastically, with a hint of panic.

"Plus-five speed?" Fishlegs piped up, also panicking.

"A shield," Astrid said with conviction.

"Very good, Astrid! Shields, go! Your shield is your most important piece of equipment. If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield."

As his voice quieted, two others piped up. "Get your hands off my shield!" shouted Tuffnut.

"There're like a million shields!" shouted back his sister.

"Take that one! It has a flower on it. Girls totally like flowers," Tuffnut countered indignantly.

Ruffnut wrenched the shield away from her brother and whacked him in the face with it. The elder of the two (by five minutes) slumped over, unconscious.

"Tuffnut, you're out. If you have ta bicker over equipment, you're doing something wrong," Gobber shouted to the group. By this point, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were the only ones without shields on their arms, even though Ruff had one in hand. "Now, as Ruffnut just demonstrated, the shield is also effective as a blunt-force weapon. However, if it isn't on your arm…"

He trailed off. Ruffnut looked at him in confusion, still holding the shield by its edge. From her left, the Gronckle flew in, firing a blast at the shield. Jumping backwards, she managed to avoid the shield's exploding fragments.

"Not exactly that effective for blocking. Ruffnut, you're out!" the smith shouted.

Hiccup and Fishlegs were both hiding once again behind a wooden barrier against the wall. Astrid and Snotlout stood their ground in the middle of the arena.

"All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?" Gobber quizzed the teens.

"Five?" Snotlout said, uncertainly.

"No, six!" Fishlegs shouted, jumping out of the cover he shared with Hiccup.

"Very good Fishleg …" The smith began to say, but was interrupted when Fishlegs' shield was shot clean off the boy's arm. Fishlegs screamed and ran toward the safety of the arena entrance.

"Fishlegs, you're out!"

"So, Astrid," Snotlout said, turning to her. "I'm moving into my parents' basement. You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out!"

Rather than use any energy to get annoyed by or punch Snotlout, Astrid kept her attention fully on the _angry dragon_ bearing down on the two of them. At the last possible moment, she dove away from the babbling egomaniac. He finally noticed the dragon.

"Oh Thor's sh..." he began, but was cut off by his own shield taking a fireblast that knocked him over.

"Snotlout, you're out!" Gobber shouted. "Hiccup! Get in there!"

Snotlout scrambled to his feet and ran for the arena entrance, abandoning his weapons. Hiccup, quietly, emerged from the cover and jogged over to where Astrid was standing.

"So, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" he asked, looking at her.

"Nope, just you."

She somersaulted away. Hiccup remembered what she'd _just_ done to Snotlout and turned quickly, looking for the dragon. He found the Gronckle descending toward him from behind. He raised his shield just in time to deflect the incoming blast of fire. But Hiccup lost his grip on the shield, which rolled away across the arena.

"One shot left! Hiccup!" the smith shouted across the arena, opening the gate and running toward him. Hiccup, meanwhile, ran after his shield, abandoning the axe he'd been somehow not dropping with one hand. He got halfway to the edge of the arena before he realized - much to his dismay - that the shield was rolling away from a direct vector away from the angry dragon, meaning following it would let the fire-breathing reptile catch up. Forsaking the shield, Hiccup ran for the arena's edge - directly away from the dragon - unsure of what he'd do once he got there.

He tripped and fell, scrambling backwards on his hands and rear the final two feet to the wall. The Gronckle closed in, readying a fireblast to end Hiccup once and for all. Hiccup closed his eyes, sensing the heat intensify …

The dragon roared in pain, flinching away from Hiccup and instead blasting the wall. When Hiccup reopened his eyes, he saw the handle of a double-bladed axe on the dragon's backside as it spun to face its attacker. Lying prone now, Hiccup could make out the feet of Astrid and Gobber (although in his case, it was one peg leg and one foot) standing before the Gronckle.

"And that's six. Go back ta bed ya overgrown sausage!" Gobber shouted, grabbing the Gronckle by its teeth with his hook-appendage.

"Wait!" Astrid cried, moving to retrieve her axe from the Gronckle's rear-end.

"Ah, nope, that's tha price of damagin' the trainin' equipment," Gobber chuckled. Astrid chased after Gobber and the Gronckle, but then noticed that the axe wasn't in the dragon anymore. She looked back toward Hiccup and saw it lying a few feet away from him.

"Hi," Hiccup said, still lying on the ground. "Knocked it out with my face. Y'know, usual ol' me."

Astrid picked up her axe and stalked off. Gobber locked the Gronckle in its cage, then turned around and frowned. "Bafore y'all run off! Tomorrow, no weapons. Just bring a bucket o' water. Or three. 'S many as y'can carry."

Tuffnut, who finally regained consciousness, looked around groggily. "What? What'd I miss?"

Ruffnut came over and punched him in the back of the head. "Hiccup almost died. It was awesome!"

In a few moments, the two were in a fight about how Ruff didn't wake Tuff up to see Hiccup nearly die. Hiccup slowly regained his feet, taking stock of any injuries other than the obvious bruise blossoming on the right side of his face. He realized after a moment that he wasn't wearing his helmet.

Looking around, he saw a glint of ivory and metal on the opposite side of the arena. Evidently, when he had emerged from his cover under the wooden panel, one of the helmet's horns had gotten stuck in the board he and Fishlegs frequently hid under, which already had been weakened by two days of dragon fighting. He walked over and pulled the helmet loose, putting it back on his head.

Turning to go, he saw Gobber limping out of the arena. He jogged to catch up with him, picking up his axe along the way. He caught up to Gobber as they crossed the bridge back to the village.

"So, Gobber, I was reading the Book of Dragons last night … " Hiccup began.

"Aye. Y'were late 'cause of it, yeah?" Gobber asked.

"Well, yes. See, I just happened to notice the book had absolutely nothing on Night Furies. Is there another book? Or a sequel? Some kind of Night Fury pamphlet?" Hiccup questioned.

"Noone's ever seen one and lived to tell the tale. Not even Bork the Bold. 'cept you, a'course, but you said yourself that was more of a vision. Bit hard to write anythin' when you don't know anythin'."

"So how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?"

Gobber gave him a look of annoyance.

"I know, I know, but hypothetically."

Gobber considered for a moment. "Wait… do you actually have the beastie downed somewhere on the island?"

"No! No." Hiccup replied too quickly, "It, ah, flew off. When I found - er - _couldn't_ find it. It's not here. I-I'm just asking, y'know, in case it - uhm - ever comes back."

Gobber grunted. "Then my point still stands. Can't give advice about a beastie you don't know anything about."

The two reached the end of the bridge, and turned toward the forge. Hiccup began to split off. "Say, Hiccup," Gobber started. "I haven't seen you around the forge much recently."

"Sorry, Gobber, I've gotta go practice in the woods. Gotta make sure the dragons aren't prepared for all… this!" Hiccup said, jogging off. He heard a huff of suppressed laughter from the smith as he disappeared from view.

-EoT-

The noonday sun shone brightened the alley between one of the village's many storehouses, and one of its even more numerous dwellings. Hiccup sat, leaning against the dwelling and looking at the storehouse wall, considering things. In his hands was his helmet, the one his dad had given him the night before. Absently, he adjusted the loose horn back and forth as he thought.

Fact: The Night Fury was trapped in a small cove, and there was no physical way for that tiny lake to provide enough food for it.

Fact: The Night Fury couldn't fly, because of him.

Trapped in the cove, it would die, because of him. Hiccup. Any Viking would've considered that a good thing. Hiccup, clearly, wasn't just any Viking.

Slowly, his mind slipped to the next treasonous thought.

Fact: The village had plenty of food, evidenced by being able to keep the dragon-training dragons around.

Consider: What's one more dragon to that food supply?

This idea had been bouncing around in his head ever since he left Gobber earlier in the day. The thought went against everything he'd ever been taught. Feeding the enemy? Madness! But the fact that he was still alive went against everything he'd ever been taught, too. It - well, "he," at least Hiccup thought the dragon was male - hadn't killed him in the cove, even given every opportunity. Hel, it went to sleep with him still there! He probably could've snuck up and killed it if he retrieved his dagger and remained absolutely quiet. And he - the Night Fury - probably knew that.

Memories bounced around in his head too:

" _Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"_ _Stoick shouted._

" _A dragon will never,_ ever _, just stop fighting," Gobber lectured._

And then one that irked him, though he wasn't quite sure why:

" _That's tha price of damagin' the trainin' equipment," Gobber chuckled._

Gobber, one of Hiccup's role models, had treated the dragon as _less_ than an _animal._ The Gronckle (this one he had no clue of the gender) had just gotten an axe lodged in its back and the smith was only upset that it meant the dragon couldn't fight for a few days. He couldn't believe the forgemaster could act so coldly toward a living creature. One time the smith found a spider on the anvil, and he carefully took the spider outside before he resumed hammering. He'd ended up ruining the sword he was working on because of it.

" _Ah, but you_ will _kill dragons" Stoick countered._

His dad had treated killing the creatures like the most natural thing in the world. To him, it probably was.

Hiccup just wasn't one of those people. He couldn't kill the dragon in his vision - if that's what it even was. He couldn't kill the dragon in real life.

He couldn't let the real dragon, that was really out in that forest, die.

Decision made, he stood up and looked around, leaving the helmet in a patch of grass beside him. Nobody had noticed him there. Silently, he slipped under some loose boards into the storehouse. Inside, he grabbed a basket and filled it with a couple fish off the top of each storage bin: salmon, Icelandic cod, haddock (he chuckled at the irony), and a whole smoked eel. He pulled his loot to the improvised entrance, slid out for a quick look around, then dragged the basket out and hoisted it onto his back. Unnoticed, he dashed out of town.

Soon, he arrived at the cove, slipping through the cliff-cave entrance quietly. He saw the dragon sleeping on the side of the lake opposite his entrance. The whole scene - even with the breathing black boulder that was actually an aggressive killing machine - came off as quite peaceful. Dropping to the ground, Hiccup approached the Night Fury.

He wasn't sure if he should wake it. He wasn't sure how he should wake it. He wasn't sure why he'd want to wake it. Scratch that last thought; he knew why.

Simply leaving food for the dragon would be too treasonous, Hiccup reasoned. He needed to prove to himself that he - the dragon - was an intelligent creature. What better way than to see whether he exuded gratitude and trust? Neither of them could build that relationship unless Hiccup was there when he - the dragon - became aware of the food.

Also, Hiccup realized, he really needed to find a name for the dragon, now that he was giving it a gendered pronoun.

So he stood there, terrified, ten paces from the massive killing machine, with a basket of fish on his back. The dragon, heart-stopping offspring of lightning and death itself, yawned in its sleep.

Its teeth were gone.

"Huh. Toothless. I could've sworn you had …"

Apparently, Hiccup's muttering was a touch too loud. The Night Fury's eyes snapped open mid-yawn, instantly awake, and focused on Hiccup. It jumped to its feet, eyes narrowing to slits and teeth appearing where previously there were only gums, growling at the encroaching teen.

"... teeth."

The two stood in tense silence for a moment, as the dragon's growl faded to a low rumble.

"H-... Hi. Please don't kill me. I brought food," Hiccup stammered.

The dragon sniffed, and its pupils widened to something rounder than a slit, but still rather aggressive. Probably noticing that Hiccup had nothing on him made of metal, the dragon stepped closer, sniffing again.

"Ah.. uh... okay," Hiccup continued, unslinging the basket. The dragon flinched back, growling louder as the basket's lid popped off, spilling an assortment of fish onto the ground.

"Tah-dah! Fish. Food. Oh, gods, please don't kill me," Hiccup said, inching backward.

The dragon sniffed at the pile. "I brought salmon, cod, haddock, and a smoked eel," Hiccup said, gaining the slightest hint of confidence.

That confidence vanished when, at the mention of an eel, the dragon jumped backward and growled even louder. To Hiccup's relief, it wasn't growling at him, but at his pile of fish.

He mentioned the eel, and the dragon freaked out. Coincidence? He thought not.

Slowly, so as not to startle the creature, he reached into the pile and fished (oh, ha ha) out the eel. At the sight of it, the dragon's growl intensified again. Carefully, with just the tips of his fingers as he had done with the knife the other day, Hiccup flung the eel back towards the cave entrance. As soon as it was out of sight in the grass, far away, the dragon relaxed and moved back over to the pile of fish, nosing around in the seafood with its snout.

"Yeah, I don't like eel much either," Hiccup muttered, wiping his sticky hand off on his vest and backing away from the ravenous dragon.

He stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do while the dragon finished up the last few fish. In his hunger, the Night Fury ended up sticking his entire head inside the basket.

And he got it stuck.

As soon as the dragon realized he couldn't get the wicker contraption off his head, he started growling again and thrashing about.

"Woah! Woah, c-careful! Just…" Hiccup tried to calm the dragon. But the Night Fury was having none of that. Instead, it charged at the sound of his voice. If he wasn't terrified for his life, he might have found the sight of a wicker-headed-dragon hurtling toward him quite funny. As it was, he had bigger issues to worry about. The dragon's basket-head collided with Hiccup's torso, lifting him up into the air. Reaching forward, Hiccup grabbed the lip of the basket where it met the dragon's neck. The furious reptile shook its head, trying to dislodge both Hiccup and the basket. Thanks to the scrawny Viking's added weight (and grip) he succeeded, sending boy and basket sprawling to the ground a dozen paces away.

Hiccup sat up. The Night Fury was low to the ground, wings raised intimidatingly and growling at - the basket. Realizing he could probably solve this the same way he did the problematic eel, Hiccup grabbed the basket and threw it toward the cove's entrance. Turning back to the fire-breathing reptile, Hiccup was relieved to see him looking somewhat calmer. The dragon's eyes still were narrowed slightly, but the aggressive slitting of the pupils had all but died away, and several flaps around his head had come up in a more relaxed fashion. The dragon also was sitting up, wings in.

Nervously, Hiccup smiled at the dragon, making sure not to bite his teeth together in a way that would look aggressive. The creature blinked, then the corners of his mouth began to pull sideways and upwards. After a moment, the dragon had a gummy smile on his face, teeth retracted and pupils rounded. Hiccup's smile faltered in wonder. Carefully, the Viking stepped forward, slowly raising his hand.

When Hiccup came within six paces, the Night Fury's smile dropped away. He gave a quiet snarl, eyes slitting and teeth extending, then launched into the air, attempting to fly across the lake. Once again, the dragon lost control and spiraled down on the opposite shore.

The dragon still didn't really trust him. He was still afraid of him - scrawny Viking Hiccup - like a cat with someone it had just met. No petting today. Come back later.

"Okay, then. Toothless dragon isn't aggressive at the sight of me. I suppose that's a good first step," Hiccup said to the stretch of lakeshore around him. As he moved back toward the items he'd thrown, he considered what had just happened.

Obviously, he (the dragon) needed a name. "Toothless" is fairly benign, technically truthful (some of the time), and very Viking-like. Hiccup decided he'd call the dragon Toothless.

Arriving at the rockfall that led up to the cove's cave entrance, Hiccup put the eel inside the basket and hefted the now slightly deformed wicker bundle. Once he'd climbed part way up, he looked back at the Night Fury. Toothless was sitting in the shade of the cove, tail wrapped around himself. His tailfin (not plural) was lifted in front of his face as he fanned it in and out at the whim of his muscles. He was staring specifically at the space where another tailfin once had been.

An idea struck Hiccup. A crazy, un-Viking-like idea that - now that he'd had the thought - he couldn't resist trying. He pulled out his notebook, letting the basket drop to the rock behind him. Using a charcoal stick, he noted down the rough angle that the right tailfin reached when open, and the length of each of its support spines.

He did this, he thought. Maybe he can fix this.

 **A/N:**

 **I am a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad person.**

 **And I'm sorry.**

 **But this chapter is nearly double the length of any previously released chapter! That's good, right?**

 **Sorry. :(**

 **Chapter 7 is on track though, because it's already done and edited by the beta. That's good. :)**

 **Thanks for reading, enjoy the rest of your day/night/life/battery power (whatever comes first)**


	7. Chapter 7 : Gas Control Safety

Chapter 7 : Gas Control Safety

-EoT-

Hiccup returned to the village as the sun dipped below the horizon. Most people were out in fields or pastures, closing up gates and corralling livestock for the night, so Hiccup went unnoticed to the storehouse he'd _borrowed_ food and a basket from earlier that day. He shoved the basket under the tiny hole in the wall, followed it in, and returned the basket to its original resting spot. It was more oblong than it had been before (thanks to a dragon's head) but he doubted anyone would notice. Perhaps they'd assume one of the twins had hidden in it, while escaping the consequences of their prankstering. Opening the basket, he pulled out the smoked eel. It was still quite dead and preserved, but thanks to its rough treatment today, it was starting to smell somewhat rank.

If a Night Fury was afraid of eels, would other dragons be that way too?

Hiccup felt around himself for a place to hide the eel. He had no pockets that were big enough. Eventually, he slung the disgusting thing around his shoulders (making sure it rested on the tunic, not his neck) and covered it over with his fur vest.

Who knows, might save his life in dragon training.

Quietly, he slipped back out of the storehouse and collected his helmet from where he'd left it earlier in the day. It had remained undisturbed in the grass, as he expected. Slipping back into the main streets of the village, Hiccup headed home for a long night of sleep.

-EoT-

Or more specifically, lack thereof. As he lay in bed, moonlight shining in through a window, the idea he'd had earlier that day ate at him. "Just a couple hours in the forge," his conscience complained, "then you can get some sleep!"

"Fine!" he eventually shouted to his empty room, standing and dressing in yesterday's clothes. He, of course, forgot the slimy eel he'd worn all the way home (which was sitting atop his clothes chest, so he'd remember to wear it to dragon training in the morning) and its slime - soaked into his shirt - spread a freezing chill across his shoulders.

Shivering, he made his way downstairs, past the frozen hearth, and out of the empty house towards the forge.

Both Gobber and Hiccup had worked late nights on strange projects before, and nobody questioned him as he worked for the next three hours, the glow of the forge coals the only light in the workshop. Slowly, his idea came to fruition: a prosthetic tailfin, made of leather and metal, attached to a hinge joint to open and close like its real counterpart once did. When it was complete, Hiccup unfurled and furled it a couple times, to be sure the leather folded properly.

If he could get Toothless to cooperate, and find some way to allow the dragon to control it, this was totally going to get his… new… friend… back in the air.

He stopped to consider what he'd just thought. He'd actually called the dragon a friend, in his head. And it didn't seem very wrong, or-

His thoughts were interrupted by a growling from just above his belt. Looking down, he realized he was hungry. Very hungry. Thinking back, the last time he'd eaten had been… almost exactly twenty-four hours before.

"Well done Hiccup, you can feed friendly dragons better than you can feed yourself." his stomach grumbled.

Groaning, Hiccup packed away the tailfin, hiding it in a corner of the shop, then leaving for the Great Hall. Maybe there'd be something there to tide him over until breakfast in the morning.

-EoT-

Hiccup awoke to a faceful of potato. He'd gone to the Great Hall, pulled out some leftovers from the evening meal, begun to eat… then he wasn't sure. He guessed he was just tired, and had probably dozed off. Straightening, he wiped off his face, then finished his meal. Thankfully the morning was still young and the hall was still empty. He dumped his dishes in the cleaning area, then headed outside.

He was greeted with the dim light of very early morning shining through threatening clouds - classic Berkian weather. Stumbling a little in drowsiness, he moved down the Great Hall's steps toward his father's house. Once inside, he went to his room and collected his axe, helm, and smoked eel. Figuring there was no reason to ruin more shirts than necessary, he remained in yesterday's clothes and slung the eel over his shoulders under his vest again.

Then he remembered Gobber had said today was another weaponless training day. Weaponless with buckets of water: What could possibly go wrong? Groaning he dropped his axe haphazardly on the floor (chipping a floorboard) then went downstairs to search for a bucket. Finding one by the dark and cold hearth - empty - he strolled outside and down towards the town square, destination: the well.

As he entered the (round) village square, he noticed that he wasn't the only teen preparing for dragon training. Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout were there. Snotlout had one bucket filled, but was trying to keep it away from the other two. Meanwhile, Ruff and Tuff had three buckets between them, each with one bucket clipped to their belt, and the remaining bucket between them, being fought over.

"I'm five minutes older, so I should have the bucket!" Tuffnut shouted, pulling on it and splashing water everywhere.

"Nuh-uh, I'm five minutes cooler!" Ruffnut countered.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Snotlout complained.

"Why don't you take Snotnose's bucket?" Tuffnut asked, "He doesn't need it, he could totally like punch the dragon to death."

"Oh, thanks for that, _but I'm keeping my bucket_!" Snotlout shouted.

The brother and sister went back to bickering between themselves, and Snotlout slipped away. Meanwhile, Hiccup approached the well as inconspicuously as he could, hoping not to draw the twins' ire. Reaching the side of the well opposite the bickering pair, he attached his bucket to the rope pulley there, and dropped it down into the well. Focusing on lowering the bucket, he didn't notice as the bickering quieted away. Once he was pretty sure he'd gotten it low enough to collect water, he pulled it back up. When it was in sight, he heard a voice behind him.

"Should we?" asked Ruffnut.

"We totally should." replied Tuff.

Hiccup turned around, fearing the worst. It was, in fact, worse than he'd imagined. The twins pushed him backwards, sending him flailing into the well. Meanwhile, they took his bucket and started running off toward the training arena.

Sputtering, Hiccup returned to the surface of the well's water level, treading water. He'd bumped the sides a couple times on the way down - thankfully nowhere vital - but he was pretty sure he wasn't climbing out in this state.

He felt around himself, looking for something to use to escape. His notebook was getting soaked again, his charcoal pencil probably wouldn't be good for writing for a couple hours. His eel was a little less rank, a little more slimy, no more alive and of no use whatsoever. Feeling his head, he realized he'd lost his helmet. Thinking back, he thought it'd probably been knocked to the ground outside the well by the pulley as he went over the edge.

Hopefully some strong Viking would notice the helmet and figure out there was someone down here. As if on cue, a voice called down from the top of the well, disrupting the light, "Hello? Hiccup?"

"Fishlegs!" Hiccup shouted, "The twins pushed me into the well!"

He heard something wooden drop to the ground outside the well - probably Fishlegs' bucket(s?) - then the Viking returned, and began to lower the rope. Once it was within reach, Hiccup grabbed it and gave it a sharp tug. Fishlegs reversed direction, hauling Hiccup up and out.

"Thanks 'legs." Hiccup breathed, relieved to be out of the well.

"Yeah, yeah, sure thing." Fishlegs replied. The overweight Viking turned around, picking up his one bucket.

"Darn, here I was hoping you had another." Hiccup sighed.

"Relax Hiccup, we'll just go tell Gobber and he'll cuff the twins on the head and hand you their buckets." Fishlegs comforted, as he lifted his now filled bucket from the well.

"Ok…" Hiccup said, as he began to follow Fishlegs off to dragon training, boots squelching dejectedly.

"So, Hiccup." Fishlegs began, once they were a little ways away from the village square, "I was reading the Book again last night, because I wanted to try to guess what dragon we're facing, and I noticed something odd."

"Oh?" Hiccup asked, not really paying attention. His boots continued squelching.

"I happened to be flipping through the book, over in Strike class, and I noticed a stain on a pretty particular page."

"Stain?" Hiccup questioned, more confused as to where this could be going than really following what Fishlegs was saying.

"Yeah, a bit of dampness that left an impression in the book. It was just sorta interesting, y'know? Like a little mystery. Who'd let the Book of Dragons get damaged like that?" Fishlegs continued, obviously hedging around something.

"...What page?" Hiccup asked, starting to realize that this could be dangerous territory.

"It's less about the page, and more the shape of the damp space. It sorta looked like a journal that a certain Viking carries around, a certain Viking about whom some rumors exist regarding-" Fishlegs went on, then was interrupted by Hiccup.

"What. Page.?" Hiccup questioned, tone darkening.

"The Night Fury." Fishlegs said.

They walked on in silence. The sun broke away from the horizon and they were probably late, but neither of them were looking forward to dragon training anyway.

"Wait," Hiccup said, "What rumors?"

"Well, It's been around the village a little bit…" Fishlegs replied, trying to avoid the topic.

"Fishlegs, please, come on." Hiccup complained, sick of his rescuer's constant hedging.

"Ok, my dad told me that Snotlout told him that Spitelout told him that Stoick told him that Gobber said you'd had this weird vision involving a Night Fury and dying and like fighting and stuff. Something about you two totally being destined to fight one another." Fishlegs said quickly.

Hiccup sighed. "Should've figured he couldn't keep quiet about the whole thing."

"Wait, so…" Fishlegs started to ask.

"Yeah, faced off against a Night Fury in my dreams. Shot it down-" Hiccup stopped to cough, "temporarily in real life."

"Did you sketch it?" Fishlegs asked excitedly, "Was that what you were doing with your journal on the night Gobber told us all to read the Book?"

Hiccup thought for a moment, "If I say no, you're going to know I'm lying. So… yes. I sorta did."

"Can I see?"

Hiccup had really been hoping it wouldn't get to that. His journal was soaked, all the pages were transparent-ish. If he showed Fish the sketch, he'd see the tailfin one page to the right, and the map one to the left. Everything he's been doing would be out in the open.

But wait… the journal was wet! "Sorry Fish, I don't want to damage my journal when it's wet. When it dries off… maybe."

"Oh." Fishlegs sighed, as the two finally reached the outer gate to the Kill Ring. They passed through, and discovered that their view through the inner gate was blocked by a cloud of green gas. "Zippleback gas!" Fishlegs shouted, "Should've guessed! It can't make sparks when its sparking head is wet!"

Hiccup blinked. Entering the arena right now, with only Fishlegs and one bucket between them seemed like a very bad idea. Suddenly, Tuffnut came running out of the fog, ducking under the inner gate as quickly as he could. "I am hurt! I am very much hurt!" Tuff shouted, escaping through the outer gate.

"Uhh, Fishlegs, this looks bad. Maybe we should wait for the others to-?"

Hiccup's question was cut off as a hammer prosthetic was laid across his shoulder blades. Next to him, Fishlegs tensed under a massive calloused hand.

"'Bout time you two showed up! Everyon' else is gettin' knocked over before 'ey can blink. Now ge' in there!" Gobber said to the two, shoving them under the inner gate before shutting it behind them.

Thankfully, Fishlegs didn't spill the water bucket in the tumble. How he did that, Hiccup probably won't ever understand.

"Chances of survival dropping into the single digits." Fishlegs whispered, as the two edged out into the arena. Suddenly, a round dragon head attached to a very long, sinuous neck emerged from the fog, eyes slitted. It got up very close to Fishlegs, staring him down. Hiccup backed up slowly. Fish panicked, and dumped his bucket of water over the head.

The head coughed up a small patch of green fog, which dispersed to join the miasma surrounding the two Vikings. "Oh. Wrong head." Fishlegs whimpered.

A second head emerged from the fog, slithering toward the overweight Viking. Fishlegs screamed and ran in the general direction of the entrance gate, the sound of flesh slamming into stone echoed throughout the arena.

Hiccup fell back onto his rear, scrambling backwards on hands and feet. The gas was dispersing - oh the advantages of a non-airtight arena - but there was still more than enough gas around to incinerate any humans left. He glanced back, noticing the sinuous necks of the dragons, and remembered that insurance he'd brought along.

It was either going to scare the dragon away, or it would aggravate the dragon into lighting the miasma. Either way, it was better than waiting.

Hiccup shrugged his vest lower down his shoulders, revealing the black-and-yellow striped eel to the dragon. Instantly, both head's slitted eyes widened and the heads recoiled simultaneously, as if struck. Hiccup stood, raising both arms to appear larger. He doubted he was having as much of a scaring effect as the eel around his shoulders, but it still felt good to him.

"Back! Back! Now don't make me tell you again!" Hiccup shouted at the terrified dragon, which retreated toward its open cage door, now visible on the opposite side of the arena. He continued to drive it (Just because one dragon gets a gender doesn't mean they all do!) back into its cage. "Yes, that's right. Back into your cage!"

The dragon was now cowering against the back wall of its cell, both heads pinned to the ceiling to get as far from Hiccup (and his eel) as possible.

"Now think about what you've done." Hiccup said, tossing the eel just inside the cage, under the guise of shutting the cage doors.

Wiping off his hands, he turned around to face the other Vikings of the dragon training class, who were all staring slack-jawed.

"Okay…" Hiccup began, "So are we done? Because I've got some things I need to… uh… yep, see you tomorrow!"

He jogged out of the arena, past all his stunned classmates. Behind him, he heard the patter of feet trying to catch up. He made it to the end of the bridge before a hand landed on his shoulder and spun him around. It was Snotlout's.

"How'd you do that Hiccup?! That was… unnatural!" Snotlout questioned.

"I…" the scrawny Viking fumbled, trying to come up with an excuse.

"That was awesome!" Ruffnut shouted, coming up behind Snotlout.

"I hate to ever agree with my sister, but that was like totally cool." Tuffnut said, joining Ruffnut.

"Oh, yeah, that's great. Hey, uh, I left my axe in the Ring. Catch you all later!" Hiccup exclaimed, running back the way he'd come.

In the distance, he caught Ruff's confused tone saying, "Why would his axe be in the arena today?"

Sprinting up the bridge, he passed Astrid (who was stalking down the bridge looking exceedingly annoyed) and Gobber (who was staring off blankly, walking back toward the village).

At the arena's edge, he looked around for any Vikings that could witness his next action. He didn't see any, so he quietly slipped back into the arena. Using the crank as gently (and therefore silently) as possible, he unbolted the Zippleback's door. Carefully, he slipped over to the door and opened it. The dragon was still cowering against the back wall, looking like the saddest creature ever to visit the archipelago.

"I'm so sorry. It was the only way for me to… uh… convince you not to kill me." Hiccup whispered to the dragon. Slowly, he lifted the eel lying on the floor and wrapped it around his shoulders, once again hidden under his vest.

"So, so sorry about that." He whispered again, backing out and closing the door, letting the crossbar drop back into place. As Hiccup exited the outer gate, he saw an overweight figure walking inconspicuously down the bridge, and caught innocent whistling on the air.

Fishlegs. He hadn't been on the bridge, he'd probably hidden in the spectator stands when Hiccup returned. Dang. How much could he have seen from outside the cage?

Shaking his head, Hiccup realized he really needed to keep a better eye out. He was doing things for a _dragon_. There wasn't an enemy more foreign to the Vikings than that - treason charges would be brutal and immediate.

He just had to hope Fishlegs hadn't seen anything.

Hiccup slipped down into the town, heading first for the forge. It'd be easier to come up with some excuse for the tailfin than it would for a basketful of fish, and with the town square so busy at this time of day, he had to be pretty careful.

Entering the forge, he found Gobber hammering away at a new sword. The smith looked up at his entry. "Hiccup! Tha' was quite a trick in the ring today! Wha' di' you do?"

"Oh it was nothing much." Hiccup said, moving to retrieve the tailfin, "Just a bit of intimidation, y'know, scary Viking stuff."

"Uh huh." grunted the old forgemaster, "It have anythin' to do with what y' got there?"

"What this?" Hiccup said, looking down at the wrapped-up tailfin, "Nah, this is just a… ah-"

Darn, he'd thought coming up with an excuse for it would be easier.

"A secret project! Tha-at I will tell yo-ou about… when it's done." Hiccup stammered.

The smith eyed him, then shrugged. "Eh. Don't burn the village down, or get y'self killed. I'm sure y' heard it all before."

Hiccup slipped out of the forge, tailfin in hand. That had gone better than he'd expected. Next up, he had to slip into the storehouse. He wasn't sure about dragons (entirely) but food always seemed to make a great bribe for Vikings. Maybe his not-murderous Night Fury would be more willing to cooperate with a scaly (as in fish! Not another dragon) encouragement? Before long, he was back in the alleyway. He dropped his helmet and the tailfin in the grass, then slipped inside. Snatching the (most) oblong basket off the shelf, he once again filled it with excess fish off the top of the various containers. At the eel container, he slung the slimy eel that he'd been carrying everywhere off his shoulders, and dropped it behind the container. If anyone ever found it (which he doubted) they'd figure some idiot had accidentally let this one eel slip out of the pile. Basket in hand (or more specifically on-back) Hiccup slipped back out of the storehouse and into the grass-filled alley, retrieving the items he'd left there. Unnoticed (as far as he could tell) he slipped up to his house, and dropped off his helmet. Slipping out the back door (his father's room) he jogged off into the forest.

Referring to the map in his journal, Hiccup took a slightly different route to avoid wearing an obvious path to his scaly… friend. He had clipped the book shut and stuffed it down his shirt, when suddenly he heard a battle cry and caught a glint of metal smacking into a tree nearby. He ducked, then slowly rose as he saw a blonde-blue blur jump to retrieve it. Nothing to panic over, just Astrid training. She tore the axe from the tree, then turned and searched for a new sapling to murder, noticing Hiccup for the first time. Her stare struck him as something between confusion, murderousness, and incredulity. As nonchalantly as he was able, he picked a random direction and began to stroll off into the forest.

He'd have to take a longer route than he'd originally thought. No big deal.

A good half hour later, Hiccup finally arrived in the cove, hopping down noisily. If he was going to startle the Night Fury awake, better to do it as far from him as possible. The dragon, however, was already awake. He bounded over, gliding from rock to rock along the cliff's edge, then taking a seat twenty paces away, sitting up in a relaxed position. The expression the dragon gave Hiccup was one that the young boy could only label as curiosity.

"Hello again! So… uhh…" Hiccup began. He unslung the basket, and let it spill out on the ground, "Same seafood as yesterday-"

The dragon began to growl.

"No eel! Nooo… eel." Hiccup said hurriedly. The growl stopped and was replaced with a new sound. A… Purr?

Carefully, avoiding sticking its head into the bucket, the dragon began to snap up fish from the pile. Hiccup slowly sidestepped back and to the side of the dragon, prosthetic tail-fin under his arm. "Okay, That's it, That's it. Easy. Don't you mind me…" Hiccup muttered, as he came around to the dragon's tail, "I'll just be back here minding my own business…"

Kneeling down, he laid out the new tailfin next to the dragon's tail, opening the buckles and trying to slide it on. The dragon, reaching for another fish, inadvertently moved his tail further away from the new fin. Hiccup picked up the fin and set it down again, repeating the process. The dragon's tail moved again.

Annoyed, Hiccup stood and stepped over the tail, kneeling down again with the tail between his legs. The appendage flicked between his knees, but the dragon was more interested in the fish Hiccup had brought than its limbs. Quickly, Hiccup fastened on the strap and opened the new tail, comparing it to the flesh-and-blood original opposite.

"Ah. Okay. Not too bad, I mean, it works." Hiccup muttered, watching the original flick around a bit. Suddenly, he felt the tail tense between his legs.

"Wait, I ca-" Hiccup began, but before he could explain anything to the dragon, he suddenly found himself laid out on the tailfins, knees gripping the tail for dear life as the ground receded quickly and wind whipped by him.

"WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Hiccup shouted, the shore of the cove growing farther with every wingbeat of the creature dragging him along. Under him, the world began to spin as the dragon banked left toward the ground. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder, noticing the opposite cliff wall approaching quickly. Looking back at the tail, he saw that the flesh-and-blood tailfin was tensed and fully extended, while the prosthetic was flapping uselessly. Without thinking, he grabbed the prosthetic and pulled it open.

There was a whooshing noise as Hiccup's face passed within a handsbreadth of the ground, but with both tailfins extended the dragon was able to correct its flight path, and shot into a vertical climb. "Oh my- It's working!" Hiccup shouted to the wind. With another tug, he pulled on the prosthetic tailfin and caused the world to shift again, this time banking to the right. This maneuver brought them circling back around over the cove's lake.

"Yes! Yes! I did it!" Hiccup shouted again. Under him, the dragon - what did he name him, Toothless? - shifted. Looking back, he saw the dragon looking at him as if noticing he had a rider for the first time. Suddenly, the world shifted again as the dragon performed a sharp left turn, and Hiccup lost his grip and was sent flying.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" Hiccup screamed, as the cliff of the cove loomed larger before him. There was a crunching sound, and Hiccup found himself wrapped around a tree branch, suspended a good five times his height over unforgiving looking rocks. Ahead of him, just out of reach, the cliff loomed about one time his height higher. Glancing over his shoulder, Hiccup watched as (without him pulling the prosthetic open) Toothless tumbled into the cove's lake uncontrolledly, roaring as he fell.

"Hiccup?! Oh Thor!" A voice shouted over the lip of the canyon.

"Fuh- Fishlegs?" Hiccup wheezed back in question. Over the lip of the cove, the teen's rounded face appeared.

"Hiccup! Is that the Night Fury?" Fishlegs asked excitedly.

Hiccup wheezed hard over the tree branch his torso was wrapped around, "Oh, that's the first question you ask. Not 'Hiccup, why and how are you hanging in a tree over a _lethal drop_?'"

Another head of blonde hair joined the first, looking over the edge of the canyon at him. "Alright Hiccup, why _are_ you hanging in a tree over a lethal drop?" Astrid asked icily, "and does it _happen_ to have anything to do with the dragon in that lake, or the stunt you pulled in class today? What is with you and the dragons?"

Hiccup coughed, and his grip slipped, letting him slip a few finger widths down his torso. "Can we focus on this... when I'm not... in imminent danger of my life?" He wheezed.

"Astrid," Fishlegs began, "I think he has a poi-"

Astrid drew her axe, snarling, "Not until I get some answers!"

"Fine!" Hiccup breathed, slipping another finger width, "I had a vision wherein I... freed a Night Fury and it killed me... then I met the Night Fury in the woods the next day. Then I fed it fish, made it a new tailfin, and discovered I. Suck. At. Flying!"

The two other teens stared at Hiccup for a little while, until he slipped a bit more, now resting on his upper arms to stay over the branch.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you?" Astrid asked, incredulous, "Our parent's war is about to become ours, the gods are giving you tips about how to act and you're - what - taming one of these beasts?!"

"Astrid, think about it! We don't have to kill them! We just have to-" Hiccup continued.

" _We_ don't have to do anything!" She snarled, anger flaring, "You're siding with them!"

Hiccup's arms gave out, and he was left hanging by his hands from the branch. Astrid blinked, anger suddenly replaced with worry. Fishlegs squealed, "Hiccup!"

Astrid looked from Hiccup to the Night Fury, now out of the lake on the opposite shore and glaring at the three teens. She turned back to Hiccup and the tree branch, and cocked her arm back to throw her axe.

Fishlegs' squealed again, "Astrid! What are you doing?!"

Astrid threw the axe at where Hiccup's branch met the trunk of the tree, then leapt after it, out over the abyss. "Saving the chief's son so we can kill him later!" she shouted back. The axe she threw lodged into the trunk of Hiccup's tree, just to the side of the branch, and she grabbed the handle for support, standing on the side of the tree and using the axe to remain attached. She leaned out toward Hiccup, reaching out a hand. The scrawnier Viking took one hand off the branch, reaching out to her, then lost his grip.

Astrid shouted his name. Fishlegs squealed it. Toothless roared.

Hiccup tumbled in the air as he fell. He saw the branch, the sky, the opposite cove wall, Toothless trying to glide across the lake in a straight line, the unforgiving rocks below rising up so fast to meet him...

And…

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **This took way too long. I just decided, eventually, that I'd just put this chapter out there and see if I can't get back to working on the story. I can't guarantee getting back to any kind of schedule, but I do want to finish this. I guess Undertale just got me back in the mood for timeline shenanigans.**

 **Also, the direction I took the story in the three chapters I have written after this one seems to be a dead end. I think describing every loop might be what drained my energy for writing in this AU. SO! I'm scrapping all that in favor of following my intuition for where the story should go. Outlines? What are those!**

 **Please criticize harshly, so I get some ideas on where not to go.**

 **(Also, taking criticism from whoever the wonderful person who mentioned I had too much cannon in my AU: You're totally right! I'm working to have a lot less of that pesky cannon now that I'm back, because that too seems to have drained my energy.)**


	8. Chapter 8 : Let's Try This Again

Chapter 8 : Let's Try This Again

-EoT-

Hiccup awoke at the sound of an inhuman cry of pain, suddenly echoed by a very human one. Eyes snapping open, he shot into a sitting position, then clamped down on the scream coming from his own mouth. Looking around rapidly, he took in the night sky, the city under raid, his mangled bola launcher, and a glint descending toward Raven Point.

He was startled from his reverie by a roar from just past his bola launcher. His less-than-graceful awakening had startled the Monstrous Nightmare that had been stealthily ascending the hill. Its quarry alerted by its own surprise, the dragon fired a wave of burning death over the launcher and the area where Hiccup had been lying.

Hiccup, however, had guessed the Nightmare would notice his own cry, and had taken off down the hill already. The boy continued down the hill unimpeded, as the dragon voiced its anger and took off after him.

Entering the square, Hiccup used the extra time his foresight had bought to run close to the forge, grabbing a length of rope off a hook just inside the shop window. A couple of the Vikings in line shouted at him to bring them weapons, but he ignored them. Throwing the coil of rope over his head, Hiccup turned back to running toward the lower-village ramp as the Nightmare burst out of the alley behind him. Reaching the top of the ramp, Hiccup began to descend and shouted to an ascending figure, "DAD! Nightmare coming from behind me in the square!"

"Nightma-? Never mind, I'll handle it!" the chief replied gruffly, barreling past Hiccup up the ramp. At the top of the ramp, one of the Nightmare's wingtips appeared, followed quickly by its head and long neck. As it reared back to spew fiery death down the village's best path between the pastures and the square, Stoick leaped at the beast, grabbing its jaws and clamping them shut bare handed. At the sudden extra weight on its head, the Nightmare's neck slumped to the ground.

"Rope its mouth shut! Now!" the beast-wrestling man ordered.

"Yeah, Yup!" Hiccup replied, taking the coil of rope off his shoulders and moving over toward his father.

Above the two, a black fur-clad figure stopped at the edge of the cliff. The Viking shouted, "This is a job for the-"

Hiccup cut the figure off, not pausing in his work, "Snotlout! Don't you dare! Get the rest of brigade and dump water down here now!" Finishing the lashing of the head, Hiccup stepped back.

"Wait, wha-?" Snotlout began, but was once again interrupted as Astrid shoved him out of the way.

"Incoming water!" She shouted, her words followed by a bucketful of liquid.

"Yeah!" "Comin' at ya!" The twins joined in, simultaneously throwing two more bucketfuls onto the struggling Nightmare.

"MEN!" Stoick shouted, "Hold it down!"

Several Vikings in the square - that had been waiting at the forge for weapons - saw the chief holding down the Nightmare's head bare-handed and ran to help. The dragon thrashed furiously - but ultimately ineffectively, as it could no longer light its now wet skin - as Vikings piled atop its limbs and pinned it to the ground. Hiccup winced as its delicate wing membranes were pressed harshly into the ground. Nobody noticed his discomfort.

"More rope!" Stoick shouted up to the fire brigade. Astrid disappeared, then reappeared a moment later with another coil. The twins and Snotlout just disappeared, ostensibly unable to find any more. From the side of the square opposite the forge, Gobber appeared swinging a bola one-handed. The smith released the contraption, which pinned the dragon's back legs to its tail. As more Vikings arrived to sit on the beast, it eventually gave up fighting, moaning pitifully. Stoick, still leaning on its horns, turned to his son. "Hiccup, that was incredible!" The chief turned to his long-time friend, "Gobber, did you teach him that?"

Gobber poked his false tooth with his axe-prosthetic, lying painfully (for the dragon) on one of the Nightmare's wing joints. "I ha' ta say, Stoick, I ha'n't a clue where he picked tha' up from."

"What's the big deal?" Hiccup asked, "I mean, all I did was grab some rope while I ran from certain death. It's hardly anything-"

"Hiccup, you just helped us all capture a _Monstrous Nightmare_. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that this is the dragon that lights itself on fire." The chief chuckled, "You lured the beast straight into the perfect situation for us to take it on! Hiccup, I… I'm proud of you, son."

Hiccup's heart lurched. His dad was proud of him!... for running away from a dragon and getting incredibly lucky. Or… It could hardly be called luck at this point, or visions. He'd literally been given multiple tries at this. "Dad. I…" He started.

While the three of them had talked more Vikings arrived, some now bearing metal bindings to fully capture the Nightmare. With little difficulty, the new arrivals bound its wings and legs, leaving it tied halfway on the ramp, and halfway in the square. Stoick released the dragon's head so that another villager could apply a metal muzzle, turning to the crowd. "This," he shouted, "is a day of celebration! Our new generation have taken on a Monstrous Nightmare and triumphed! This morning, let us feast! Leave the repairs for the afternoon!"

Stoick's heavy hand fell across Hiccup's shoulders, guiding the boy past the hog-tied Nightmare and into the village square. Gobber, no longer needed to hold down the dragon, caught up with them. "So, Stoick," the smith began, "Since we're going to be celebratin' today, would a member of the village be right in assumin' tha' dragon training will occur on schedule, tomorrow? I'm askin' for someone else, 'a course."

"No, Gobber." Stoick said, audible only to the three of them, "Let the fire brigade know they're doing dragon training this afternoon. And that plan you came up with for combining weapon repairs with training, I think that'd be a good lesson for today. I have something I want to bring up with the village after the feast."

"Oh, right, 'o course," Gobber said, splitting off from the father and son.

"One more thing, Gobber!" Stoick called. The chief turned to Hiccup, "Hiccup, you'll be joining them in the Ring."

"I- I will?" Hiccup stammered.

"Stoick, I don't know if tha's the best idea. The lad worked well against the Nightmare bu'... Who knows what'll happen?" Gobber said.

Hiccup shrunk a little inside at his forgemaster's lack of confidence, but spoke up, "I think I might have to agree with Gobber, dad. The Nightmare was cool and all, but I hardly think tha-"

"Hiccup, it's time. You showed the aptitude today, now we're going to give you the training. Besides, you've wanted to fight dragons since you were little!" Stoick chuckled at some memory, "It's not like anything's changed."

"Well, actually, see-" Hiccup hedged, unsure how to broach the issue with his seeming un-death.

Stoick chuckled again and patted his son's shoulder, sending the smaller Viking stumbling. "Get some rest, and train hard today. I've got a celebration to run, essentially in your honor! Gobber, take Hiccup home, and make sure he gets to class."

Gobber shook his head, but took the younger Viking by the shoulder, guiding him like his father had done. Stoick split off from the two of them, headed for the Great Hall, where a crowd of Vikings had already begun to gather.

"He _still_ never listens!" Hiccup complained, to nobody but Gobber.

"'Still'? Are y' suggestin' there wa' a time tha' he did?" Gobber chuckled.

Hiccup shook his head and continued home in silence.

-EoT-

Hiccup didn't go home. Or - more specifically - he went home, but didn't stay there. As soon as he went inside, and Gobber turned back to the village, Hiccup took off out the back door, headed for the cove. In only a few short minutes, he'd made his way to where the Night Fury he'd helped over the past few days - last time anyway - had crashed in their first meeting. Like their second meeting, the Night Fury wasn't there.

"Okay," Hiccup said to the empty woods, "the cove, then."

Moments later, Hiccup found the entrance to the cove and descended to the opening in the side wall. He looked around the cove for any sign of the dragon. When he finally found his sometimes-maybe-friend, he gasped. "Toothless! Odin's beard."

The dragon had aimed for the cove's lake again, and missed; instead of landing in the water, the Night Fury had skidded on the lake's far shore, coming to an abrupt stop against the cliff wall. Hiccup - more nimbly than he thought possible for his clumsy self - descended the rocks toward Toothless.

Toothless, hearing Hiccup approach, crooned in a manner so similar to a human moan that it broke Hiccup's heart. "I'm so sorry bud, I'm going to get you out of this." the Viking spoke, calmingly.

Hiccup examined how the ropes had tied up the dragon, finding them in pretty much the same configuration as in the Night Fury's first crash-landing. He felt around himself, taking inventory of what he had on. Vest, journal, charcoal, boots, belt, dagger… Dagger!

He wasn't the only one of the two to spot the weapon, Toothless gave a whimper at the reflected glint of metal, shifting in his bonds.

"Woah, woah, easy. I'm going to have to cut you out again. Just… stay still." Hiccup said, trying to placate the several-ton-death-monster he'd been helping. Toothless was nonplussed.

Gingerly, Hiccup withdrew the dagger from his belt. The dragon sprawled out below him began to growl. Slowly, he knelt by the reptile's side, placing the blade under the first of the three ropes key to the bola's structure. With a very gentle and careful sawing motion, he began to cut the rope.

"Easy, just… don't… move…" Hiccup muttered, more to reassure himself than the dragon, whose growl at the weapon almost drowned the words out.

Hiccup was down to the third rope. Toothless stopped moving, but the growl didn't abate. Hiccup's sawing on the rope slowed. The rope tore, unraveled, then broke.

Hiccup stopped moving. Toothless stopped breathing, the growl cutting off. At a glacial pace, Hiccup leaned backward, withdrawing the blade from the vicinity of the Night Fury's belly. When he was leaning so far back that all the weight left the balls of his feet, Hiccup lost his balance and fell backward, both hands swinging back to catch his fall.

The Night Fury pounced, both legs closest to the ground (the two on its right side) digging in and throwing himself a good distance forward. Forward, and to Hiccup's left, well away from Hiccup. When the dragon landed, righting himself, he turned to look at Hiccup with the curious-relaxed posture from the day Hiccup had brought him the new tailfin, head cocked to one side and pupils round.

Gingerly, Hiccup stood up, dagger now held by the tips of his fingers. Toothless tensed, glaring daggers at the dagger. Recognizing the issue, Hiccup had the dagger tossed into the lake before the Night Fury could begin to growl. Hands fully visible, he stepped toward his friend.

"See, all good. That crash looked pretty bad, are your wings…?" Hiccup started to ask. He was cut off by the Night Fury unfurling each wing in turn, inspecting them visually. Satisfied, the dragon gave the wings a few quick (and powerless) flaps, then furled them again. Returning to the relaxed position, he curled his tail around his feet and looked down at the fins.

Fin, singular, to be precise. Where the other should have been was a scabbing gash, blood still slightly wet. The dragon stared down at the injury, flexing the remaining fin.

"Toothless, I…" Hiccup trailed off. What did he mean? He sure as Hel meant injury when he fired the bola launcher, even if that was a week… er an hour or two ago. He regrets it with everything he has _now_ , but apparently the gods didn't want him fixing that mistake.

The Night Fury snorted, flicking his tail back behind himself and turning his intense gaze on Hiccup. In them, Hiccup could see echoes of pain, misery at being grounded, a dim distrust and… Hope?

What could the dragon hope for from him? His one attempt at getting his friend back in the air had ended in a crash, that quite literally got Hiccup killed and certainly didn't help his draconic friend fly on his own.

Getting close to the ground in a stance that seemed more submissive than predatory, Toothless slunk closer, shortening the ten pace gap between them to five, then two, then bumping his nose into Hiccup's limp hand. Too confused to move (confused both by why he - either of them - wasn't scared and what Toothless could want) Hiccup remained stock still, letting the dragon slink around him. His head on Hiccup's left and tail to his right, Toothless sat, bringing both of his ends into Hiccup's vision. With a nudge of the chin, he suggested to Hiccup that he sit, essentially in his lap. The boy acquiesced.

Toothless looked at his tail, furling and unfurling the one good tailfin - the right one - then looked expectantly at Hiccup.

"Y-You want me to try again?" Hiccup asked.

The dragon nodded feverishly (though avoided jostling the boy). Then the dragon licked Hiccup's face.

 _Licked_.

 _His face_.

Hiccup leaped out of the dragon's lap, wiping furiously at his face with his sleeves. "Oh eww, ew ew ew." the boy complained.

Once his face was back to a somewhat not-sticky clean, Hiccup looked down at his sleeves, each with slightly dark patches from the Night Fury saliva. He rubbed at the patches, but they didn't thin out or lighten, only spread. Toothless gave a confused croon.

Hurrying over to the lake, Hiccup tried to rub the saliva off the sleeves with the water. The water darkened the sleeves still further, but didn't seem to make the dark patches dissipate. "Great, so it doesn't wash out." Hiccup complained. Behind him, the Night Fury slunk up and gave his hair a lick.

"Eww, gross. Okay, this conversation is over." Hiccup said, stumbling away from the shoreline and rubbing furiously at his now-tangled mess of hair.

The dragon made a series of throaty barks that Hiccup recognized as laughter.

"Oh ha ha. Very funny."

The dragon sat down on its haunches again, giving him a pair of really, really cute pleading eyes.

"Fine, yeah, I'll find time to make a tailfin and get it to you. But I won't have time today." Hiccup said, not even considering how one-sided the conversation was. Toothless cocked his head and crooned.

"This afternoon I have to do dr-... things. In the village. And then tonight I can work on it, but tomorrow morning I've got more d- things. Assuming this time around is just like last time." Hiccup explained.

Toothless hopped up and down, shaking with excitement. Realizing how bright it was getting, Hiccup looked up and noticed that the sun had risen above the treetops surrounding the cove. It was probably only an hour until noon.

"Sorry bud, I've gotta go. They'll miss me at… things."

The dragon nodded, then stuck his head out toward Hiccup. It took him a moment to figure out what the dragon was doing, but he got it. The young boy stretched out his arm, touching his fingers to the dragon's snout before turning and running off toward the village.

-EoT-

"Hiccup! You're early! Why'd you come runnin'?" Gobber said as the scrawny young Viking arrived at the outer kill-ring gate.

Hiccup panted for breath as he spoke, "Oh, you know me. Doing crazy things. Probably burning something down, y'know! Gotta maintain all of… this." At the last word he flexed his arm, muscles hanging weakly.

Gobber shrugged. "Well, y'er the first person 'ere, so y' might as well head on in. We're usin' some very special weapons today, and y' best pick one off the rack before you lose first choice."

Hiccup laughed, "Special as in mangled in the raid?"

Gobber frowned, "How'd you know tha'?"

"I-..." Hiccup thought back, looking for a way to not sound crazy. Then he remembered Stoick's words to Gobber that morning, "I- I was right there when dad told you to combine weapon repairs with dragon training, remember? How are we going to do that, anyway, I don't exactly see dragon training as the best way to-…"

"Oh it'll be quite the surprise, I'm sure you'll have quite a bit o' fun." Gobber chuckled, "Now ge' in there! I can see Astrid and the twins already on the bridge!"

Hiccup entered the arena, picking a mangled weapon off the rack and hefting it to his shoulder. He didn't even bother noticing which one he lifted, just picking the first light enough for him to heft. (Barely, he might add) "It wasn't fun the first, second, or third times. I doubt it'll get fun now." He muttered.

As Hiccup walked to the center of the arena, the fire brigade entered, talking amongst themselves.

"I hope I get some serious burns!" Tuffnut said, excitedly.

"I'm hoping for some mauling," his sister joined, almost bored, "like on my shoulder, or lower back."

"It's only fun if you get a scar out of it" Astrid commented.

Hiccup, remembering their reaction from last time, decided to try a less adversarial approach. "Well, you guys have fun getting burned. I'll just be over here focusing on learning ways to… I dunno… not die."

The group came to a halt, looking at Hiccup.

"Oh great, who let _him_ in?" Tuffnut said to the group.

"Let's get started!" Gobber shouted, giving the fire brigade (as a whole) a nudge toward Hiccup, then walking around the group now bunched at the center of the arena. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village!"

Gobber went as if to continue, but Snotlout interrupted him, "Hiccup already captured a Monstrous Nightmare with like half the village helping, so, does that disqualify him or…?" At his commentary, the twins burst into raucous laughter and Hiccup winced. He really hoped that Nightmare wasn't being treated too badly by the other Vikings.

"Can I transfer to the class with the Vikings that _don't_ need help for everything?" Tuffnut joined in, his sister guffawing again.

Gobber sighed at his class' antics, before returning to the subject matter at hand… er… hook. "Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight! The Gronckle!"

Quietly, audible only to the brigade and Hiccup, Fishlegs muttered some statistics, "Jaw strength: eight. Armor: twenty"

"The Hideous Zippleback!"

Louder now, more statistics, "Plus eleven stealth times two."

"The Monstrous Nightmare!"

Hiccup winced. That's what they'd done with that Nightmare. Fishlegs, now almost bursting with excitement, voiced another statistic, "Firepower: fifteen!"

Gobber frowned, but continued, "The Terrible Terror!"

Literally bouncing, Fishlegs spoke again, "Attack: eight, Venom: twelve!"

"COUL' YOU STOP THA'?" Gobber shouted, silencing Fishlegs. "And… The Deadly Nadder."

Fishlegs whispered again, only audible to the brigade once more, "Speed: eight, Armor: sixteen."

Gobber moved to open the last indicated cage. Snotlout spoke up, suddenly panicked. "Woah, woah, wait! Aren't you going to teach us first?!"

"He believes in learn-" Hiccup said, trailing off as Gobber gave him a look.

"learning on the job, yes." Gobber finished, opening the cage door.

The teens scattered as the Nadder burst out of the cage, looking around the arena with frightened glances. Gobber went limping off toward the entrance, where an anvil lay just outside the inner gate.

"We were told not to bring weapons! How are we fighting it?" Fishlegs shouted, running in circles around the middle of the arena as the Nadder stood and watched.

"Oh, righ', forgot ta mention tha'." Gobber said, then turning to shout to the class, "You're not fighting it today! Grab the melted weapons off the rack over there, and try to get the beastie to burn the weapon, but not you!"

"How, exactly, do we do that?!" Snotlout asked, grabbing a sword that resembled a carpenter's straightedge (right-angle bend in the middle) and taking cover behind the weapon rack. Astrid picked up what, at one point, may have been an ax, but was now closer to an unbalanced mace. She stood her ground, in front of the weapon rack.

The twins and Fishlegs ran past the rack, grabbing the same weapons they'd used when Hiccup had been through this scenario previously. As before, the twins started fighting over theirs while Fishlegs ran to take cover behind the board. Hiccup joined the overweight Viking there, holding his weapon in front of the board like Fishlegs had done when he'd succeeded last time.

From behind the board, Hiccup couldn't see what was going on. He heard the twins' bickering get broken up by the Nadder's arrival, Snotlout's ill-timed hitting on Astrid get cut off by a yelp of surprise, some muffled shouting by Gobber, then dragon feet approaching the board he hid behind.

All was quiet for a moment, then Fishlegs sucked in a breath, about to say something. Hiccup's hand shot out, covering the heavier Viking's mouth. Hiccup's one hand remaining on his weapon couldn't support the heavy implement, and it sunk two inches to thunk against the wood.

'Legs stopped breathing, Hiccup stopped breathing. The Nadder squawked, blew fire at the board, then ran off around the arena again. Just like last time - when Fishlegs alone his behind the board - the board held off the dragon fire. The two teens clambered out from behind the board, to find their weapons well heated. "Cool!" said Fishlegs, who then hurried over toward Gobber. Hiccup followed.

The teens all stood nearby the arena entrance and Gobber, who seemed to be unconcerned by the Nadder poking around the opposite side of the arena - whistling he pounded away at the molten metal brought to him by the teens.

"Eigh' weapons in three Nadder shots?" Gobber asked, quite surprised, "You kids'll put me outta business! Forge business, obviously, I'll still be trainin' you all."

"Uhh, Gobber?" Fishlegs asked, "Not that I'm complaining, but, why isn't the dragon coming over here?"

"Noise." Gobber punctuated the word with a strong hammer beat. Hiccup thought he saw the Nadder wince. "Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim. Something about how they hear gives 'em a headache if the sounds are too loud."

The teens nodded in understanding, with the exception of Tuffnut. "That's stupid," he said, "Why don't they just _not_ get headaches from sound? What's the use in get-" His questioning was cut off by his sister punching him, sending him to the ground and making his helmet ring. From the ground, Tuff moaned, "That was fun, do it again!" to which his sister responded with a kick. Nobody moved to intervene.

"So, you boys n' girls up fo' another go?" Gobber asked. Hiccup and Fishlegs shook their heads vehemently. Astrid nodded vigorously. Snotlout opened his mouth to complain, but was interrupted by trying not to fall over, when Tuffnut pulled Ruffnut to the ground and she stumbled past 'Lout.

"I'll take your various antics as an affirmative then. I'm almos' done with the last one from last round, and as soon as that's done, that Nadder 'll be all over ya'. Good luck!"

With his last words, he shut the inner gate, leaving all the kids inside the arena. Hiccup and Fishlegs shared a glance, then moved together to the weapon rack that wasn't still smoldering. Snotlout gaped at the smith through the bars of the inner gate. Hiccup gave him glances, wondering if he'd been broken somehow as all the other teens grabbed their weapons, and 'Lout just stood there, looking incredulous.

Gobber finished with the last weapon and Hiccup turned away to focus on the dragon - now quite agitated from the smith's work - as it came running toward the teens that were paying attention.

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **This chapter was originally going to be the longest yet, but I cut it short because chapter 9 would've ended up very tiny.**


	9. Chapter 9 : Teach Me How To Fly

Chapter 9 : Teach Me How To Fly

As the sun's disk touched the horizon, Hiccup took stock of how the day had gone. He'd scared the Zippleback with an eel - a nice trick that - and escaped the village to go try his crazy idea. Then he'd managed to ride a dragon, fall off said dragon, die, and be resurrected back in the raid where he shot down the dragon. He'd aced the raid - done everything right - and landed himself in dragon training. He snuck off, kissed and made up (a bit closer to kissing than he liked) with the offspring of lightning and death itself, snuck back, then done a bit better in his first round with the Nadder than last time.

So much better, in fact, that they had their second round on the first day.

The second round with the Nadder had gone quite well (on the whole, rather than for him specifically). The twins had managed to (safely) unfuse a three-way-fused weapon - with assistance from Fishlegs - which made up for Snotlout's screaming and failing to heat any weapons. Astrid managed an entire rack singlehandedly - again - and the rest of the kids were left to gape in awe as she got four heated weapons over to Gobber, alone. Before the rack fell apart, Hiccup grabbed one of its weapons (abandoning the cold one he had picked up) and got that heated one to the smith. Snotlout managed to waste one of the Nadder's shots while running away, and that left the dragon with no shots and a peg-legged Viking to contend with. Gobber made short work of putting the dragon away, and that was that.

Now Hiccup found himself headed to the forge, to avoid an awkward conversation with his dad. Also to work on the tailfin. At least, given how everything had happened so far, he assumed that conversation with the ax and the helmet would happen earlier because his dad was even more proud of him for helping _successfully_ capture the Nightmare.

Hiccup really didn't want to deal with that.

Arriving at the forge, Hiccup set to work on the fin. He hoped he remembered everything correctly because this time he forgot to take any drawings to work from. He made five supporting rods, three long and two short. He put the short ones on the outer edges, the longs in the middle. A sheet of leather stretched over the five and attached along each length, with joints preventing the 'fin' from opening beyond a certain angle while also allowing it to fold shut.

Holding it up to the forge's dim light, Hiccup furled and unfurled it. It looked about the same as last time, though he might've done a bit better on the leatherwork. Dumping the fin in the same corner as last time, Hiccup turned to the shop window to look outside. At a glance, he could tell it was after dark, but his view of the sky was blocked by a vast, bear-fur cloaked figure.

"D- Dad! Hi. Dad. Hi, dad. I- I was _just_ about to head home." Hiccup stammered, wiping off his hands on his apron.

"Hiccup. Missed you after dragon training, and at dinner." Stoick said.

"Oh, sorry, I came straight here after training." Hiccup babbled, "Wanted to work on this id- er- stuff. Y'know."

"Right, of course, I- erm." Stoick coughed, as if uncomfortable.

Mentally, Hiccup sighed. He was getting the awkward conversation anyway. Hopefully, this time, he could expedite it.

"So is there some particular reason…?" Hiccup trailed off, leaving the air open for his dad.

"Yes, I wanted to give you this." His dad pulled out an ax, same as before, dropping it into Hiccup's (less than capable) grip. The scrawny Viking said nothing, unsure whether faked gratitude would sound sincere. Stoick looked down at his boy, seemingly deep in thought, before starting and speaking again. "Oh, right, this as well," he said.

His father pulled out a helmet, with two curved white horns. He adjusted one of the horns in its socket then handed the helm to his son. As Hiccup reached for it, the ax he'd previously barely supported with both hands dropped to the floor. Carefully, Hiccup took the proffered helm by the horns, knowing what his father would say next.

"It's half your mother's breastplate." His father tapped his own helm, which was sitting atop his head. "Matching set. Keeps her close."

Hiccup remained silent as the scene repeated itself, at least until his father's comment about "all of… This."

"Dad, you just gestured to all of me." The boy complained. His father's face was unreadable as he stood at his full height, looking down. Hiccup couldn't stand a minute of silence like last time, so he interrupted the moment before it got going, "Okay, I'll train hard, you'll come back from the nest hunt, it'll all be great. For now, I'm off to bed."

"Wait, nest hunt?" His father stopped Hiccup as the boy attempted to escape the conversation, "Who told you I was going on a nest hunt?"

"The other kids in dragon training?" Hiccup said, voice rising into a question as his father's face took on a look of confusion.

After a moment, his father defused the situation with a chuckle. "Must have been joking with you then. After the feast, the other villagers shot my nest hunt idea down. They're all too worried about the approaching freeze."

Hiccup stammered out some response and jogged off into the night. His mind was in a whirlwind, trying to keep up with all the changes.

Doing so well in the raid that his dad launched a feast had caused the village to reject the nest hunt. So his dad was still here. Because his dad was here, taking care of Toothless would be quite a bit harder.

The next few days - until he more-than-likely died again - were going to be very _fun_.

-EoT-

Hiccup woke to sunlight streaming in through his window. It hardly even merited mentioning, but, he was late - again. Rising from his bed, Hiccup glanced out the window and saw that almost a full sun's disc could fit between the sun and the horizon; he was _very_ late.

Given that only one round of Nadder training remained after yesterday (and the other teens were doing better, somehow? Were they jealous of Hiccup's recognition in the raid?) Hiccup figured that - maybe - he could sneak off to the cove.

Not bothering to change out of yesterday's clothes, Hiccup ran downstairs and out the front door. His father wasn't home - the hearth cold - and he was glad to avoid any more conversations like last night's.

Jogging down to the forge, Hiccup found it thankfully devoid of life. He fetched the tailfin and ran back out, moving to sprint to the grassy alley by the storehouse.

Once he entered the dark storehouse (leaving the tailfin outside in the grass) he stopped to take a breath. He'd have to come up with an excuse for his absence later (for Gobber and Stoick) but for now, he was pretty much undetected, unless someone caught him between the warehouse and the forest.

Hiccup glanced around the dark interior, looking for the basket they'd made oblong in past days' play. It was only after a few seconds of searching that he remembered that he'd died, and the event that bent the basket hadn't (and probably wouldn't) occur.

He retrieved a normal basket, filling it off the tops of the various fish piles (excluding the eel pile, of course.) Once he had it filled, he grabbed a rope from the piles of netting toward the front of the storehouse and used it to tie the basket shut. He didn't have any real reason to tie the basket shut because of its latch, but it was an easier way to transport the rope for his new tailfin-fixing idea. Following the basket out the hole in the wall, Hiccup made his way toward the treeline-

-and ran right into his father, coming down from the great hall. "Hiccup! What's all this?" Stoick bellowed.

Hiccup winced at being caught, but his mind immediately began to create excuses. He was over two dozen paces from the grassy alley - so nothing incriminating there. "Da-Dad! Hello, there, dad. Uhh… I'm working on…"

What could he say? His dad wouldn't accept the 'secret project' explanation he gave to Gobber when he was discovered last time around. Perhaps if he could distract his father with something of note he did this attempt. . .

Struggling to make his mouth form coherent noise, Hiccup continued, "I- er... It- it's a new idea I had to counter Monstrous Nightmares! I- I'm going out to this dirt patch I found in the forest to test. . . er. . . its fireproofing!" As he babbled, he continued walking quickly past his father and toward the treeline. "Tell Gobber I'm sorry about missing dragon training this morning, but that it'll totally be worth it!" He shouted back, as he broke into a run for the treeline.

As the town disappeared behind the first trunk, he heard his father's bellowed indignation, "Tell him you missed _what?!_ " Thankfully, Hiccup was long gone at that point.

-EoT-

Hiccup reached the cove without (further) incident. As quickly as he safely could (holding the tailfin and carrying the basket) he descended into the space, eyes searching around for his friendly Night Fury. Feeling the ground tremble as something large landed behind him, he turned to find Toothless sniffing cautiously at the basket.

"Hey bud,"

The dragon's ear flaps perked up at the sound of Hiccup's voice, and their owner sat back on his haunches, giving Hiccup a wide-eyed cute face.

"Okay, okay. Here you go." Hiccup chuckled as he swung the basket to the ground and untied the rope holding it shut. Eagerly, the dragon knocked over the basket, pawed all the fish out of the basket, and then dove face first into the pile of fish. Hiccup, meanwhile, took the rope and the tailfin a little way away, where he could work on the two.

Now was the time to put his new plan into action. He couldn't exactly ride on Toothless' tail, so he needed to be able to control the tailfin from further away. The solution? A rope! He could pull the tailfin open with the rope, and let it shut by giving the rope slack. It was perfect!

So, while Toothless enjoyed a fish buffet, Hiccup tied the rope around the tailfin's leading support strut. Sitting back to inspect his work, Hiccup was interrupted by a snout poking him in the side.

"Oh, hey. Yep, another try at a tailfin."

Toothless chuffed in a manner that sounded happy and spun around to set his tail next to the tailfin on the ground. Looking back at Hiccup, he gave a squawk that seemed to say, _what are you waiting for?_

Working quickly, Hiccup attached the tailfin to Toothless' tail. Then he took the rope in hand and walked up to Toothless' head.

Then he realized the flaw in his plan; He'd have to be riding the dragon to control the fin...

He should have thought this out more beforehand.

His mind flew with ideas, looking for a way to _not_ ride the fire-breathing reptile. Maybe he could attach the rope to Toothless' leg so that Toothless could pull the fin open? How would he explain that to the dragon?

Meanwhile, said dragon was completely confused by Hiccup's reluctance. Crooning questioningly, Toothless poked Hiccup with his snout. Then, growing bored, nosed harder. Hiccup was too lost in thought to notice the dragon's impatience…

… Until his feet left the ground entirely. "TOOTHLESS!"

Toothless had shoved his head between Hiccup's legs, sending the teen sprawling onto the dragon's back. Before Hiccup could shove himself off and return to solid ground, Toothless jumped into the air, flapping hard to gain altitude. Reflexively, Hiccup grabbed the dragon's neck with his legs and scrabbled for purchase on the dragon's torso with his arms.

It was only as they started to bank hard toward the left - and the ground - that Hiccup remembered why he was holding a rope. Looking up (and down the length of Toothless' back) from his precarious situation, Hiccup saw the prosthetic flapping uselessly in the wind. Pulling sharply, he used the rope to open the prosthetic such that it matched the other tailfin.

The bank corrected, the ground receded, and the two of them swooped out of the cove. "Yes! We did it!" Hiccup shouted. Beneath him, Toothless barked out a laugh. Hiccup watched in awe as Toothless' tail flicked to the left and they began a more sedate left-hand turn. This awe quickly turned to concern as, with the tail contracting on the left side, the rope went slack and the prosthetic flapped shut.

Had Hiccup not been holding on to a fire-breathing reptile for dear life, he would have slapped himself. The length of the tail changed when it curved around, and whatever rope or gear system he connected to the prosthetic had to change with it, or control over the prosthetic would be lost.

These thoughts flitted through his mind for only a few moments before the sedate turn plummeted into another uncontrolled bank. Toothless cried out, head whipping around to try to see Hiccup and the prosthetic. Hiccup hauled in the length of rope, trying to get rid of all the slack. He succeeded - which slowed their fall - but now the tension in the rope held Toothless' tail in a left-turn position. In a flatspin, the two tumbled from the sky and met with the earth in an open field.

Hiccup was thrown from Toothless' back, the tailfin going slack as he released the rope. Seeing the ground coming up at him sideways, Hiccup tried to brace for landing…

-EoT-


	10. Chapter 10 : Nip That In The Rocks

Chapter 10 : Nip That In The Rocks

-EoT-

The landing had been pretty rough. After getting thrown from Toothless' back, Hiccup had flipped head over kettle and landed on his left leg, hard. Thankfully, the flatspin had turned most of their downward velocity into outward force, and he'd skidded to a stop with only minor scrapes, on top of a sprained left ankle.

Toothless on the other hand... was... fine?

The dragon had recovered pretty quickly from the landing and was now rolling around in the field.

Hiccup watched as the dragon rolled by again, tongue lolling out and eyes completely relaxed. Entering a patch of grass he hadn't been in yet, Toothless took a deep sniff of the plants and collapsed to the ground.

Hiccup picked up a blade of the grass and looked it over. It was just a pretty common weed, found in several places across Berk. Apparently, it had some kind of undocumented effect on dragons.

Taking a few handfuls of the grass, Hiccup stuffed them into his vest pocket with his journal. Looking back to his favorite fire-breathing reptile, he considered how to deal with the situation. Toothless appeared to be attracted to the grass, but smelling too much of it causes him to collapse bonelessly. Hiccup considered for another moment, then realized that Toothless' nose was _on top_ of his head.

Painfully, Hiccup stood up. His left ankle protested loudly at its use. Limping heavily, Hiccup hopped his way over to Toothless, and took a handful of the grass off the ground. Holding the grass a small distance from Toothless' snout, he waited.

Toothless sniffed, then began to raise his head toward the new source of the grass smell. Hiccup hopped backward, keeping the grass a slight distance from the dragon's snout. Toothless whimpered, and followed the retreating grass. Hiccup noted how the dragon seemed to ignore all the other grass in the field, and just focused on the grass that was close to him.

After two minutes of this, the pair finally left the field and entered the trees. Once Hiccup had the entire dragon ensconced in the more standard vegetation - away from the field's grass - he tossed the handful he'd been attracting the dragon with behind himself. Toothless, unwilling to let the grass go, pounced after it - and through Hiccup. The scrawny Viking was knocked aside and to the ground while his dragon buried his snout in the handful of grass on the forest floor, and promptly collapsed to the ground again.

"That must be pretty strong stuff bud." Hiccup chuckled, sitting up and reclining against a tree root, "You're like a Viking going after a morning cup of mead."

The euphoric dragon gave no response.

Hiccup chuckled again, then groaned as the last couple of minutes hopping around with his sprained ankle caught up with him. Gingerly, he lifted his foot from the ground and rested it across his other knee. He removed his boot and inspected the joint. It hadn't swelled visibly, and he could roll it forward and backward without pain. Left-right rotation and load-bearing, however, brought bursts of pain that told him something was definitely wrong.

Any other Viking would probably be up and walking with the injury already. Being Hiccup, he'd probably be fine after a day or so.

He gave the foot one last forward-backward roll, then paused, considering.

His arms had to do a lot to help him balance in flight (not to mention to help him hold on at all) and certainly weren't very accurate for pulling the tailfin open and closed. However, his feet remained in place gripping Toothless' neck the whole time. If he used the rotation of his foot to pull a rope connected to a gear, which then fed into another pulley or two on the tail, which then fed into the tailfin, he could use the gear to amplify the pedal's motion, and the tail pulleys to keep the length of the rope proportional to the length of the tail!

Hiccup jumped to his feet, boot left forgotten on the ground. "Bud! I have an idea!"

In response, Toothless poked his head deeper into the handful of grass, took another sniff, and collapsed again. Hiccup followed his scaly friend back to the ground, as the scrawny Viking's injured foot caught up with his movement.

"... Don't get too excited, it isn't healthy for you." Hiccup muttered. He waited for his useless reptile to take another sniff of the grass, then crawled over and picked up the handful, making sure to take every blade. Before Toothless' senses returned, Hiccup crawled back over to the tree branch and shoved the grass beneath it, burying the small pile in some loose dirt. He then crawled back nearer to Toothless and waited.

After a moment, Toothless blinked, then sat up, then huffed in annoyance.

"What, was I supposed to leave you there?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless gave him an annoyed glare that clearly indicated, " _Yes_."

"Well, that's not going to happen. Sorry bud."

Toothless snorted indignantly. Hiccup crawled around to his tail and began unfastening the rope attached to the tailfin. Once he had it off Toothless, he wrapped it several times around his left ankle and tied it off. Gingerly, he stood on the joint.

"Eh, not too bad," he muttered. He took a few steps over to where he'd left his boot on the ground, and slipped it on over the ropes lashed around his foot.

"Okay bud, let's go back to the cove."

Toothless hummed in agreement.

-EoT-

It took most of the afternoon for Hiccup to limp back to the cove. The two of them enjoyed the sights and sounds of the quiet forest - or at least Hiccup thought his new friend was enjoying it. The massive dragon didn't seem too upset or impatient with the long walk back. Hiccup, on the other hand, was _very_ impatient. He wanted to get back to the forge and build the pedal-driven tailfin! However, he took the walk back slow, for his foot.

When they arrived at the lip of the cove, suddenly Toothless turned around and headed back into the bush behind Hiccup. "Woah, wha-? Where do you think you're goi-?"

His question was cut off as the dragon leaped out of the bushes, dove between Hiccup's legs, then leaped off the lip of the cove. Hiccup gave a very un-Viking-like screech as he slid down the dragon's back, past the wing joints, before wrapping his legs around Toothless' tail.

Very quickly, the glide began to deteriorate (due to the useless prosthetic being useless.) Quickly, Hiccup reached out and pulled open the prosthetic, correcting their glide-path. In a few moments, the two of them safely landed on the far side of the cove's lake.

Once Toothless came to a stop, Hiccup relaxed his legs and dropped onto the ground. The scrawny boy waited for the hyperventilation to die down, then spoke up, "Bud, you have got to stop doing that."

Toothless turned around and gave Hiccup a gummy grin, before bounding off into the lake.

Once he finally felt the adrenaline wearing off from their short, unplanned flight, Hiccup got up and exited the cove. At his rate, he'd make it home by nightfall if he was lucky. Hopefully, his dad wouldn't notice him come in. Even if he did, he had some excuses brewing.

He'd told his dad he was testing the fireproofing on a Nightmare-capturing device. Well, obviously he should say something along the lines of, 'Hey, dad. The thing I tried didn't work and burst into flames and all. I sprained my ankle running away from it when it exploded. Don't worry, the fire went out pretty quickly, I guess the tanning fluid I used on that leather was fire accelerant rather than retardant. I'm going to get some sleep then do dragon training in the morning. Love you dad, goodnight.'

… He was sure that'd go over well. Probably.

-EoT-

There was no way that'd go over well. Rather than head home, Hiccup went to the forge to get started on his idea. Working late in the forge was something both he and Gobber did all the time. Nobody would notice, and his dad would probably see his work as continued attempts at the Nightmare capture device. It'd add credibility to that frankly terrible excuse.

The pedal had been a snap to make, as he really just needed to bolt it onto a plate which he attached to leather straps to go around his friend's neck. He'd dropped the gear part of the idea when he realized that by tying the rope to the leading spar of the tailfin at such a tiny angle, he didn't need to amplify the motions of the pedal. Rotating the pedal a few degrees would pull the tailfin open roughly the same amount. While he was working on the straps for the pedal he'd added a bit more leather over the top to pad it, like a saddle. The pulleys were a bit harder to figure out, though. He needed to determine the length of the tail as it curved to the left and right, and adjust the distance between the pulleys accordingly to maintain the relation between the angle of the pedal and the angle of the. . .

"Hiccup."

"GYAAAH!" Hiccup shouted, jumping a few inches off his seat. He looked down at the diagram he'd been drawing, which now had a hole torn through both it and the page behind, looked up at his dad, and slammed the book closed.

"D- Dad! Y- you shouldn't scare me like that!" Hiccup complained.

Stoick sighed at his son's inattentiveness. "Would it kill you to pay more attention to your surroundings?"

"Well, actually, perfect hindsight makes it kinda easy to figure out where you went wrong, but when you're actually in the moment it's kinda..."

Hiccup's babbling was interrupted by another heavy sigh from his father. The young Viking trailed off into silence.

"Hiccup. Tell me the Nightmare capturing contraption at least went well."

"Er... Y'see... Um..." What was his excuse again? Oh! Right! Fire accelerant! "Th-the leather portion of the fin-er-thing was treated with the wrong tanning fluid, and it burst into flames. The I sorta sprained my ankle as I ran away and..."

Another heavy sigh. He felt kinda terrible, how much disappointment he was giving his father.

"Look, I'm just going to finish this upgrade for the control mechanism and then-"

"No. Tomorrow Gobber is doing training in both the morning and the afternoon, I want you rested and ready to go for both sessions. You're coming home now."

"But dad-!"

"No."

Hiccup gave a sigh of his own. "Fine."

"Good. Come on then." His father ordered, taking his son by the shoulder and guiding him out. Hiccup limped his way home, not resisting his father's guidance. Once he'd labored upstairs, his father went into his downstairs room.

Hiccup pulled his journal out of his vest. He'd slipped it off the table when his father had reached for his shoulder. He worked his way over to his bed, and collapsed into it, cracking open the journal to the page he'd torn.

Working under the moonlight from his window, he continued to think about the pulley problem.

-EoT-

 _Astrid, hanging sideways from her ax buried in a tree. She was reaching out to him, where he hung from a tree branch. "Hiccup, it's time to get up." She said._

" _Hiccup?"_

 _He slipped, losing his grip on the branch. The cove, Toothless, and everything else flashed past._

" _HICCUP!_ "

"Agh! Yeah! Yeah, I'm awake dad." Hiccup grumbled, rolling off the…

Huh. It appeared that he'd fallen asleep on the incredibly uncomfortable window sill. Oops. Not his sharpest move. His dad shouldered his way through his son's door, spotting his slowly rising son immediately. "Good, you're dressed. Come on now! You don't want to miss practice against the Gronckle, do ya?"

"Well, actually, yes. I'd love to." Hiccup thought but did not say. "Sure," he mumbled, noncommittally.

His father's massive hand descended on his shoulder, leading him outside into the morning light. Once they descended the front steps, Stoick gave him a push. "Good luck out there, son! I'll check in with Gobber on how you did. Until then, chiefly things to do!"

Hiccup meandered through town and across the kill ring bridge in a sleep-deprived haze. It wasn't until he entered the arena that he realized he totally forgot the ax and the breast-hat.

Oops.

"Hiccup! On time for once. Well done," Gobber praised.

"Wait, even your teacher thinks you're always late for things?" Tuffnut asked.

" _Never_ would've guessed," Ruffnut added, sarcastically.

"Well, at least the dragons will eat him first," Snotlout said. The others gave him blank looks. "If he's late, he'll be last!" Snotlout defended. "If he's last, he dies to the dragons first!"

Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "Dude, that made absolutely no sense."

"Well, actually," Fishlegs began to mumble.

Gobber cleared his throat, hand still resting on the cage lever. Everybody shut up.

"Alrigh'. Let's get started," he said. With a quick motion, he dropped the cage door lever, then began limping away across the arena.

"Wait, which dragon is…" Fishlegs began to ask. His half-spoken question was answered as a Gronckle burst out of the door, it's appearance followed by a shot directly at the group of teens. The teens scattered, taking up positions all around the arena. Gobber, now safely ensconced in the Kill Ring's entryway on the opposite side of the interior gate, shouted out to the group: "Today is about survival. If you get blasted… _you're dead._ Quick, what's the firs' thing you need when fighting a dragon?"

"A shield?" Hiccup asked.

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs offered.

"Very good, Hiccup! Shields, go! Your shield is your most important piece of equipment. If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield."

As his voice quieted, two others piped up. "Get your hands off my shield!" shouted Tuffnut.

"There're like a million shields!" shouted back his sister.

"Take that one! It has a flower on it. Girls like flowers," Tuffnut countered indignantly.

Ruffnut wrenched the shield away from her brother and whacked him in the face with it. When her brother recovered, she handed it back to him sarcastically. "Oops, now this one has blood on it."

The Gronckle, attracted by their shouting, fired a blast at the pair. Luckily, it collided with the shield they were bickering over. The shield exploded, sending both to the ground.

Hiccup rolled his eyes as the same Gronckle training scenario repeated itself. Really, couldn't time get any more original?

When Gobber finally called out Snotlout and told him to "get in there!" Hiccup decided to do exactly the same thing as before, jogging over toward Astrid.

"So, I guess it's just you and me, huh?" he asked, focusing on the Gronckle.

"Nope, just you."

Hiccup ducked the Gronckle's fireblast, reaching into his pocket and nabbing the handful of grass he'd put there when playing with Toothless the day before. He held it up just as the rotund dragon flew over his head.

Its wings immediately stalled, and it dropped on top of him.

Gobber just had time to shout, "Hiccup!" before his head hit the stone.

And…

-EoT-

Hiccup woke up screaming. "Gods damn it! Seriously?! Right after I spent a whole night doing a pedal design?!"

His eyes barely had time to adjust to the darkness before a roaring, flaming dragon crested the ridge, crushing his bola launcher.

He pointed at the dragon, still sitting on the ground. "Y'know what? No. Not this time. Just no. Nope. Not happening."

The Nightmare roared in his face, some unlit saliva splattering his skin. Hiccup frowned at it, annoyed. Apparently bored by unresponsive quarry, it flew off.

"Oh, what, REALLY?! _That_ was it? Oh go figure, I mean, it's always the simple…" he trailed off, memories returning of his work on the pedal designs. "Simple! Right! Don't build a pulley system, just build the tail movement into the usage techniques!"

The din of battle echoing up from the village below ignored his breakthrough. One of the bits of metal bent out of shape by the Nightmare gave a half-hearted pop as it tried to return to its original form.

"Well, let's see what dad does this time," Hiccup muttered, clambering to his feet and strolling down toward the village.

When he made it to the square, a familiar one-legged form came limping up. "Hiccup! Now wha' did I tell you?"

"You told me to 'get in there'?" Hiccup muttered under his breath, recalling what had been a few minutes ago for him, but might not even happen for Gobber.

"I gave you one job, an' tha' was ta stay put! In the forge! Where i's safe!"

Hiccup couldn't hold back his sarcasm. "Oh, yeah, 'cause a wooden building is certainly safer being outside, where I can run from the fire."

"Oi! Gobber!" The villagers at the forge finally noticed the smith, chatting with his apprentice. "There are still dragons about!" "You done with my ax yet?" "My sword's been bent in 'alf!"

"I'm comin' all you!" Gobber shouted back. He grabbed Hiccup by his collar. "C'mere, you. You're going ta help me catch up on all these repairs!"

"Great," Hiccup groaned.

-EoT-

In the grand scheme of things, not fighting the Nightmare caused about the same situation as screaming and running uselessly, though without all the damage and infamy. This time around, Gobber put him to work in the forge for most of the night, until Stoick proposed the nest hunt to the village.

Gobber dragged Hiccup along for that, much to the young Viking's chagrin.

"One more search, before the ice sets in!" Stoick's booming voice filled the great hall, easily reaching (and injuring) every ear within.

Various grumbles halfheartedly rung out from the crowd. Someone spoke up, "Those ships never come back!"

Hiccup began chanting to himself. "Please go with him. Please go with him."

Stoick had none of that. "We're Vikings! It's an occupational hazard! Now who's with me?"

"I'm with you, Stoick!" Spitelout volunteered. The rest of the room was utterly silent.

"We managed to protect three-quarters of our flock this time, and we captured two of them! Two Nadders! This is our chance to strike back!"

A few grunts of assent broke the silence, but the majority of the crowd still seemed noncommitted.

"Fine." Stoick stood up. "Those who stay will be on fish gutting duty to make up for the lost sheep."

Immediately hands shot into the air. Hiccup let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding. With a few more words, Stoick dismissed the crowd of Vikings to move about the village and prepare.

"I wonder if I coul' get in on that…" Gobber muttered, half for his own benefit and half for Hiccup's.

Stoick, already working his way through the crowd, shook his head. "Gobber, you know you have to stay behind and train the…" He spotted Hiccup. "Son, I was wondering where you'd gotten off to."

Hiccup shrugged. "I decided to… y'know… stay in the forge."

Gobber shook his head. "Now, Hiccup, don' be like that." He turned around on the bench, catching the chieftain's attention. "Stoick, I was going to suggest that while you're away, perhaps we coul' put Hiccup into training with the others."

Stoick stopped dead in his tracks. "Hiccup? Around dragons? Don't be ridiculous, Gobber."

Hiccup winced. Stoick didn't notice.

"Just keep up with repairs, and get some done before the boats leave. I remember you telling me about an idea you had for merging weapon repairs and dragon training…"

Hiccup slipped off, guessing where the conversation would go. All that really mattered was that he was off the hook for dragon training. Now he could try building the pedal control mechanism.

-EoT-

Hiccup clambered down into the cove with the new saddle. It was late morning, but that didn't matter. This new timeline had an open schedule! He bounded down the rocks and out into the open space. "Toothless, you here?"

Silence greeted him.

"Hello?!"

A mute whine came over the clifftop, back in the direction he'd come. Hiccup whirled around, climbing back up and out immediately.

He found the broken tree at the top of a nearby hill, next to the groove of earth. After the previous timeline's few days of peace, Hiccup had entirely forgotten that the new timeline brought a new crash. Toothless had probably forgotten that too.

Hiccup leaped over the ridge, dropping the saddle and running down to Toothless. The dragon was splayed out on his belly, the bolas wrapped around tugging his legs and wings in. The gash where once there had been a tailfin was crusted with dirt.

"Oh Gods, Toothless, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to end up dead again. It just… happened."

Toothless moaned quietly. Hiccup took his knife and cut away at the ropes held taught between the wings and legs, well away from anything vital like the neck or belly. The bolas fell away in moments, and he chucked the knife away into the forest.

The Night Fury leaped up as soon as the knife landed, licking Hiccup in what the young Viking guessed was appreciation. That guess didn't make the licking any less disgusting. "H- Hey! Oh, eww. Gods, s- stop!"

Toothless stopped, giving him an inquisitive look.

"Yeah, okay, y' big, crazy lizard," Hiccup muttered. Toothless snorted in indignation. "Oh, what, you don't think so?" Hiccup laughed. "Well, I guess it doesn't really matter, I mean, only one of us weighs a thousand times more and can breathe fire."

The dragon glared at him, clearly not impressed with all of his talking.

Hiccup guessed at what he was really waiting for. "Oh, right, a new fin! I left it just up the ridge. Let me run up there-"

Toothless shot forward, snagging Hiccup's shirt in his mouth.

"W- woah!"

He shot up the ridge, dragging the young Viking behind him.

"Yeah, th- OW- thanks. This is -Agh!- way better than walking. Really," Hiccup said sarcastically, in between bouncing over rocks.

Spotting the bundle of leather, Toothless unceremoniously dropped Hiccup on it.

"Ow. Just, gimme a minute to-"

Toothless was having none of that. Impatient, he nosed Hiccup off the bundle and started nipping at the straps, trying to open it up.

"Hey! You're going to damage it like that!" Hiccup snatched the saddle away. Toothless gave him a reproachful look. "Don't look at me like that! You do want to fly, right? Let me get this untangled so I can hook it up to your…"

Hiccup stared at Toothless' tail. There was one fin attached to the thick limb, the real one. He hadn't made a prosthetic in this timeline yet.

"Oh Gods, please tell me this isn't happening."

Toothless stared at Hiccup, waiting. The young Viking let his head fall into his hands, dropping the saddle.

"For Thor's sake!"

-EoT-

Getting back to the village without being followed by a curious reptile was very nearly an act of futility. As Hiccup carried the (useless, tailfin-less) saddle, the dragon kept nosing into it and, by extension, him. Eventually, Hiccup threw down the saddle and unstrapped everything, laying it out on the ground and showing it all to the Night Fury.

Though the dragon seemed to logically understand that the thing was, apparently he couldn't resist rolling around on it.

"H- Hey! You're going to break something! It took me forever to get that pedal guard- Oh. Great. Now it's crushed."

When the dragon calmed down, Hiccup found it laying in exactly the necessary position for him to attach the saddle. Toothless grinned at him, lopsidedly.

"Ugh. Fine. I'll put it on. But I have to fix that pedal!"

After putting on the saddle and detaching the pedal, Toothless bounded off into the forest. Hiccup sighed with relief, continuing on back toward the village.

"Geez. Maybe I am just messing this all up. I mean, I keep helping him and I keep doing the same few days over again. Maybe the Gods were trying to… help me kill him? Without dying?"

The ferns Hiccup passed rustled. They didn't seem much for conversation.

"Yeah. Great job with that, Thor and Odin and all the rest. You guys REALLY picked just the right person for that job."

Hiccup could see the village ahead, through the trees. He took a deep breath and then fell to the ground under a massive weight.

"Oof! T- Toothless?! Get off me!"

Toothless was looking at the village… and growling.

"No, bud, I have to go back. I can't fix this pedal or make a tailfin out here!"

Toothless let him up, whining.

"I'm coming back, Toothless. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Hiccup took a few steps toward the village. Toothless followed.

"No. Stay. Stay here." Hiccup walked backward as he spoke. "Just stay in the forest, where nobody can see you." He cleared the treeline. "Stay where it's safe. Sta-"

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup shouted in alarm, spinning around to find Astrid right behind him. "AAAH! A- A- Astrid! H- Hey Astrid? Hi, Astrid. W- What are you doing-"

Astrid spun her battle-ax in one hand. "Going to practice." She nudged her chin toward the trees. "Who were you talking to?"

Hiccup shot a nervous glance back. He couldn't see Toothless. Maybe the dragon had taken his advice? "I- I- I w- was talking to… myself!"

"Yourself?"

"Yep! Stay here, Hiccup! Stay, in the village! Where it's safe! Don't do something…" He chuckled nervously. "i- incredibly stupid. Yeah. Stay… not doing… any of that."

Astrid rolled her eyes and walked past him. Hiccup nervously watched her enter the trees, keeping an eye out for any sign of Toothless. He thanked whatever Gods were listening to him and his absurd problems as the dragon didn't appear.

-EoT-

"Hiccu'" Gobber bellowed as the named Viking ducked into the forge, "been wonderin' where you were! Later today, at dragon training, I coul' really use a hook moving all my hands…"

Hiccup disappeared into his back room, avoiding any kind of conversation.

"Er… a hook moving my hammers, no…" Gobber continued trying to sort out his sentence. "Aha! A hand movin' all my hands!"

When his apprentice didn't answer, Gobber stuck his head into the back room of the forge.

"Hiccu'?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll- I'll be there," Hiccup lied.

Gobber gave him a funny look. "Something up with you? Ya seem a little… off."

Hiccup shrugged, drawing a rough shape on a piece of leather. It stretched pretty well, he could always make it better later. "Well, great! Because, I'm great. Really. Everything is just fine."

"Whatever you say, lad," the old smith said, pulling his head out of the back room. "Jus' try not to burn down the village with whatever new thing you're buildin' there."

"I'll try," Hiccup muttered.

"Oh, an' don't forget, training's in an hour. I know your father didn't really want you in the training, but I coul' use some help with a part of it that'll keep you outside the gates. Nothin' to worry about."

"Right, sure," Hiccup said through the wall, loudly enough for Gobber to hear. Shaking his head, he muttered the lie to himself again, "I'll be there."

-EoT-


	11. Chapter 11 : See You Yesterday

Chapter 11 : See You Yesterday

-EoT-

"I finished it, bud!" Hiccup called as he clambered down into the cove.

Toothless, who had been trying to nip at the saddle strap across the base of his neck, looked up and crossed his forelegs as if nothing was amiss.

Hiccup ran over to Toothless, unfurling and presenting the new fin. "See! All done!"

Sadly, Hiccup's enthusiasm to present the tail had hidden Toothless from his view until it was too late. The massive dragon barrelled down on him, knocking him flat on his back.

"H- Hey! What-"

The dragon gave Hiccup's face a slobbery lick from chin to hairline, then bounded off toward the lake.

"Agh! Oh ew! Gaah… Why do you keep doing that?!" Hiccup complained.

Climbing to his feet, Hiccup retrieved the tailfin from where it had fallen and began to stroll over to where Toothless stood. The dragon, for his part, continued moving away, taking short hops and looking back at Hiccup with his tongue lolling.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes. "I can't put this tail on you unless you get over here, Toothless!"

Toothless barked, then took two bounding leaps further away. He wagged his tail in the air, tantalizingly far from Hiccup's reach.

The young Viking stared, perplexed, then ventured to ask, "Are you… playing?"

The Night Fury gave no sign of having heard the question, probably because he was on the far side of the lake at this point.

"If that's how it's going to be…" Hiccup took off running. "I'm gonna catch you!"

-EoT-

One game of keep-away and a wrestling match (of which Hiccup was the clear champion, clearly) later, the young Viking finally managed to get the tailfin attached to the rambunctious Night Fury's tail. After some goading, the dragon sat listlessly (though with loud complaining) as Hiccup strung a rope directly between the pedal and the tailfin.

"Alright! That should be as attached as it's going to-"

Toothless launched to his feet, throwing himself at Hiccup's own. His snout jabbed into Hiccup's calf, practically throwing the Viking onto the dragon's back as the eager reptile leaped off the ground.

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup shouted before he realized he should probably be figuring out how to NOT FALL OFF. He scrabbled for purchase on the saddle, managing to grab a strap and pull himself into a sitting position. By that time, though, Toothless' flight trajectory was already listing. Hiccup shoved downward on the pedal with his toes, pulling open the false fin.

It worked. Toothless corrected the roll, then shot up over the treetops and out of the cove.

"Oh! Oh, Gods!" Hiccup considered shouting out his success to the forest but realized that would likely jinx everything all over again. Right now there were no problems, and he did not want that to change. Instead, he went with the more neutral, "Toothless! We're flying!"

Apparently, though, the Gods were not smiling on Hiccup. Because the two of them were quickly running out of land near the edge of the island, Toothless decided to turn. He turned left.

The rope went slack, letting the tailfin fall shut. Even though Hiccup pressed as hard as he could on the pedal, pulling the rope as much as possible, the change in the length of the tail exceeded the slack that the pedal could control.

Perhaps a simple control solution wasn't good enough.

"OH THOR!" The two of them fell into a spiral all over again, this time out over water. "T- Toothless! Right! Right!"

Toothless flapped unevenly, trying to roll to correct the flatspin. He succeeded in spinning over, eliminating the horizontal spin by virtue of rotating on another axis, but the force of the new rotation was too much for Hiccup to hold on to the saddle.

"TOOTHLESS! OH NO! OH-"

Air rushed past as Hiccup fell past the sea cliffs on the edge of the island. Where was Toothless? The world was spinning and the rocks and water below were getting closer so fast.

And…

-EoT-

Hiccup gasped for air, then lay still. He'd been lucky. Hitting the water at that speed had knocked him unconscious. Getting pulverized against the rocks by the sea surely would not have been any fun, and probably wasn't fun for his body. Thankfully, he was once again facing the Monstrous Nightmare on the night of the raid.

He lay still, remembering how last time's inaction had made the Nightmare leave. It clambered over the ridge, crushed the remains of the bola launcher, then took off with a roar.

Step one, check.

The young Viking hopped up, jogging down to the forge. If he hurried, he could be back before Gobber even realized he'd left. That way his obedience might earn him more time in the forge. As he pushed past a couple Vikings and jumped over the pile of weapons in the forge window, a mild uproar started among said Vikings. They knew he'd been gone.

Hopefully Gobber wouldn't notice-

"Ah, lad, couldn' even handle the forge for a minute withou' me, eh?" Gobber asked, hobbling into the forge through the door like a normal Viking.

Hiccup grabbed a weapon, pretending to be busy. "Well sorry I'm so absolutely amazing at failing to manage things. Really, it takes practice."

Gobber gave a wry chuckle, taking a weapon out of Hiccup's hand and giving it a few whacks with his hammer prosthetic. "Now, see, that's the spirit that'll get you out fighting dragons!"

Hiccup paused in his work to consider that. "Failing to manage things…?"

"No!" Gobber laughed harder, tossing a sword out the window. It nicked someone's beard, their cry of indignation quickly lost in the cry of battle. "Bein' absolutely amazing at somethin'!"

He rolled his eyes. Of course Gobber had misheard that.

Later, after the raid had died down and just before Hiccup knew Gobber would drag him off to the nest hunt, the young Viking slipped out of the forge quietly. If he snuck into the storeroom, got a rope, then went back after Gobber left for the nest hunt meeting, he'd be home free to work on the saddle just about all day.

It was just his luck that Fishlegs spotted him halfway across the village square.

"Oh, hey Hiccup!" The rotund Viking seemed eager to talk about something.

"Uh… Hi?" Hiccup said. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd spoken to Fishlegs before the whole time loop had begun.

"Yeah! Hi! So. I was curious: now that we've had a raid, dragon training will start in a few days, right?"

"Sure. Yeah." Hiccup shrugged, continuing to make his way across the square. If Gobber noticed him shirking forge duty, or missing that meeting of the village...

"I was just wondering since you're Gobber's apprentice, did he - maybe - mention any of the dragons we'll be fighting against? Or the order in which we'd fight them?"

The younger Viking almost rolled his eyes. Of course Fishlegs would want to know that, and of course he'd think he was buddy enough with Gobber to know that, given that Gobber didn't notice Hiccup outside of the forge during the raid. And, on top of that, Hiccup was neither too famous nor too infamous to be talked to.

Still, he had to choose his words carefully. Anything he said might make this time around too different from the others, or might predict events that wouldn't even come to pass.

"I think we're working with… uh… something complicated the first day. The second day's a Gronckle, the third is a Zippleback."

Fishlegs' eyes filled with stars. "A mystery class dragon? On our third day?! Oh wow! What will we be doing? Anything interesting?"

Hiccup shrugged, trying to defuse the conversation. "I don't know. That's all I got."

Fishlegs deflated, then noticed the two of them were now on the far side of the square. "So, Hiccup, where are you going?"

He figured the truth couldn't hurt. "I'm going to get a rope out of the storehouse." Finding the building he was looking for, he made for the alleyway on one side.

"Uh, Hiccup?"

The young Viking turned around. Fishlegs looked concerned.

"The door is over here."

Hiccup looked between the front of the storehouse and the alleyway, then had to resist slapping himself. He wasn't stealing a basketful of fish, he was taking a rope. That was a normal thing for him to have. "Right! I… knew that! I was just wandering left and right because… I'm… really, really tired."

"Maybe you should go home, then?"

"No, no." Hiccup shook his head. "We just had a raid. It's all hands on deck, right? Gotta… fix up the town!" And build a dragon a new tailfin prosthetic, he didn't say aloud.

"A- Alright." Fishlegs looked around, noticing someone waving in the distance. "I gotta go. Bye!"

Hiccup slipped into the storehouse, found the rope he'd used the last two times for the tail prosthetic, then turned around and made his way back toward the forge.

-EoT-

"So what are you working-?"

Hiccup jumped, shoving the saddle seat he was weaving off of his desk and onto the floor behind his stool. He spun around to face the door to the forge's back room, coming face to face with, "F- Fishlegs! Oh, Gods! You scared me half to death!"

Fishlegs, being his usual meek and helpful self, was mortified by how Hiccup had tossed his work to the floor. "Oh, oh no! I didn't mean to- I can come back later…" He bustled past Hiccup, picking up and dusting off the saddle. He set it back on Hiccup's desk.

"Oh, no. Really, this is no big deal." Hiccup leaned over it as soon as Fishlegs set it down, awkwardly hiding its shape from view. "S- So what is it you wanted to talk about?"

Fishlegs wrung his hands. "Well, Gobber was complaining to Stoick about losing track of you at the meeting last night and I mentioned I saw you out by the storehouse…"

Hiccup almost considered interrupting the stream of information, but his distraction with hiding the saddle and his lack of other topics prevented any easy escape.

"So he asked what you'd said and I didn't really want to confuse anything so I mentioned you told me his training schedule and he said he hadn't even come up with a training schedule yet."

Fishlegs took a deep breath and Hiccup cut in. "He d- didn't have a schedule yet?"

Fishlegs shrugged. "Nope. Though, he thinks he's probably going to go with what you said. He told me not to tell anyone else, and to tell him whenever I found you."

Hiccup shrugged, trying to act nonchalant like Snotlout. "I guess I got busy?"

"By the way, what are you working on?"

"Oh… i- it's a-"

Fishlegs leaned over Hiccup. "It looks like a saddle! What is it even for? And that pedal, there..."

"It's nothing, really. Probably. If you could maybe just-"

Fishlegs took the rope on the pedal, following it beneath the desk to where it wrapped around a circle of metal, also with straps. "What would this saddle even fit on? It's too small for an ox, yet this metal bit is too big…"

Hiccup grabbed his arm. "Really, Fishlegs, it's nothing. Could you please just-"

The band of metal fell over, taking the coil of rope with it. This knocked over something else beneath the desk, which unfurled just far enough out of the shadow of the desk to be fully visible.

Hiccup froze. Fishlegs was way too intelligent. He'd practically memorized the book of dragons, or so his own previous attempts at this week told him. If Fishlegs recognized the fin as for a-

"No WAY!" Fishlegs exclaimed.

Hiccup hung his head. He was done for, now. He'd probably have to go jump off a cliff, or find something sharp to stab himself so that he wouldn't be seen as a traitor by the whole village.

There was no stopping the intellectual now. "Is this what I think it is?!"

-EoT-

Hiccup pressed the pedal and, in response, the fin extended. He wondered silently to himself how the day had gone so terribly, terribly wrong. Was it something in the way he'd spoken to Fishlegs? Had he been a bit too friendly giving out that information?

Did it really even matter, if he was going to end up dead and the day would start over again anyway?

"Wow, Hiccup! It's working perfectly!" Fishlegs shouted from the docks. The moonlight reflected off the water, obscuring Hiccup's view of him.

Under Hiccup, the saddle jerked. He kicked at the straps, trying to keep it in place and keep his balance. This was a terrible plan.

"Is the paddle too small? Should we have made it a little bigger?"

Hiccup resisted the urge to smash his own face in with said paddle. It was his only way of rowing the fin and saddle assembly back to the dock, after all. The saddle again tried to slip off the log, the fin upright on the back catching a draft and making controlling the thing nigh impossible. Hiccup shifted left and right, trying to correct the roll.

"This sail idea is amazing! Think of how fast a boat like that could go! Or turn!" Fishlegs exclaimed, "You're going to win the gala for sure, assuming the dragons don't burn down the docks again!"

"Yeah!" Hiccup wobbled on the log. "Absolutely amazing. No problems with this whatsoever."

"Okay, now try to row it back over to-"

Whatever Fishlegs was saying cut off as the log gave up any semblance of stability and capsized, dumping Hiccup and the fin into the water.

This excuse, the fin as a boat sail, was absolutely amazing. No problems whatsoever. Hiccup considered just not coming up, letting himself drown in the frigid ocean water.

He decided against it, given that he didn't want to build the tail and saddle over again, especially without any data on how this new design fared against the laws of flight.

-EoT-

"But why are you taking it into the woods?"

Hiccup shrugged, the sopping wet bundle of fin and saddle jumping up and down in his arms. "I just feel like storing it out here. Besides! It… uhhh… gives me an excuse for a walk, anyway."

"But I thought the point was to hide it from other people…"

"Not a literal excuse, Fishlegs. Just-"

"Isn't it really late? Maybe you should just go get some rest. I'll hide the sail!"

Hiccup looked at Fishlegs. The rotund Viking couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the fin. He wondered if that expression on Fishlegs' face was jealousy.

"Come on, please?"

"Yeah, nope!" Hiccup started into the trees, leaving the village behind.

"Fine! I'll just figure out how to make a sail like that myself!" His hands shot to his mouth. "Did I just say that out loud?"

Hiccup shook his head. Exhausted from the day of work and sleep-deprived from the consecutive sleepless nights, he kept wandering into the forest, heading toward Raven Point and its hidden cove.

-EoT-

WHAM!

Hiccup's vision swam. The rock he'd just been slammed against dug into his shoulders and the back of his head. A massive black paw held his chest against the ground, the paw of…

How did he get here?

Hiccup had made it to the ridgeline near the cove and found no groove of soil. Toothless hadn't ended up in the usual crash situation. The young Viking had descended into the cove, assuming Toothless had hit the water and the bolas himself again.

The sleek black dragon was not free. He was still bound, crushed up against the far cliff wall by the momentum of his crash.

Great friend that he was, Hiccup had dropped the saddle and run over to free the Night Fury. But, the moment the dragon was free and the knife was well clear, Toothless had pounced him. Now it was Hiccup's turn to be trapped against the cliff wall.

Toothless reared back, sucking in a huge, dry breath. Hiccup stared, unsure what to do. Why was Toothless doing this?!

What was toothless doing?!

The dragon's head began to descend.

Hiccup barely had time to whimper, "Toothless?!"

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **Don't panic! I'm not suddenly taking the story in a radically new direction, and Toothless is not randomly going feral. Worry not, there is a very clear motivation for this rash action that I'll explain in the next chapter.**

 **Trust me, we're coming up on some fun stuff!**


	12. Chapter 12 : Which Side You're On

Chapter 12 : Which Side You're On

-EoT-

Toothless roared in Hiccup's face, the sound deafening and painful. The young Viking could feel his face throbbing from the force of the dragon's escaping breath. When the barrage of noise ended, he could do naught but stare blankly at the rude reptile.

Satisfied he'd conveyed whatever message he'd intended, Toothless bounded over to the cove lake and began lapping up big mouthfuls of water.

When Hiccup's hearing finally returned, he realized someone was muttering, "w- wha- I- I don't… why did…?" It took him a moment of concentration to realize the voice was his own. He sat up.

Toothless, thirst sated, looked up at Hiccup with a glare.

"Toothless!" Hiccup snapped, "What was that for?!"

Toothless barked back at him, advancing slowly, aggressively. The Night Fury seemed to realize Hiccup hadn't gotten the message and was even more displeased by that.

"Why did you do that to me, bud? I spent all of yesterday building you another saddle!" Hiccup just couldn't figure out what had the dragon upset. "What did I do to deserve a roar in the face?!"

The dragon batted one of the weights of the bola with a paw. It rolled, hitting Hiccup's leg lightly.

"Look, this past month has been the weirdest time of my life, okay? So if you're going to just-"

Toothless growled, smacking another weight. It sailed over Hiccup's legs, catching him hard in the chest. He fell back into the cove's rock wall again, his vision swimming.

"Ow… what…?"

Finding his prey incapacitated, the Night Fury closed in. Growling, Toothless gave Hiccup a shove with his paw, then smacked the same paw on the weight that had rolled off of Hiccup's chest.

"You…" Hiccup wheezed, trying to catch his breath. He was a Viking, but that certainly didn't make him injury proof. "You're… … oh."

Toothless rolled his eyes and wandered off, certain this time that Hiccup had gotten the message.

The young Viking had indeed. He felt astoundingly stupid for not realizing it earlier. "Hey… bud… I'm sorry… really sorry… I left you… stuck out here… for a day. Okay?"

Toothless gave a snort.

Hiccup began struggling to his feet. "I… I did build a…" He paused, catching his breath. "a new saddle. I think this one's… this one's the… the one!"

Toothless perked up a little. Hiccup noticed that the Night Fury's eyes still hadn't lost their slight glare.

"Let's… get it… on you. See how… you do in the air… okay?"

Hiccup stumbled over to the bundled saddle and fin, carrying it back to the dragon. Toothless, for his part, passive-aggressively refused to lift a claw to help Hiccup mount the saddle and fin.

"C'mon… bud. I just need you… to… lift…" Hiccup dug his hands under Toothless' left forepaw and heaved. "Your leg-"

Toothless yawned, letting Hiccup collapse under the weight of the appendage.

"Ow. Fine… Have it… your way," Hiccup wheezed. "Not like I'm… trying to… help you… or anything."

Something tapped Hiccup's nose. He raised his head, finding one of Toothless' foreclaws poised inches from his face. The Night Fury had lifted the leg Hiccup had been trying to move.

"Thanks. Let me…" Hiccup's breath caught in his throat. His chest still hurt. "Just get this…"

The buckles came together. The new metal ring with the one rope around the outside fit perfectly.

"Great! Now we just-"

Apparently the siren call of the sky was too much for Toothless' patience. The eager Night Fury scooped Hiccup onto his back with a deft smack of the snout, then launched into the air.

"Oh for the…" Hiccup, now almost used to the dragon's impatience, grabbed onto the saddle and slid his foot into the pedal. Just as the world started to tilt, the young Viking extended the pedal.

The tilt stopped. The two of them flew in a straight line.

"I can't believe it! It's working!"

Toothless gave a rumbling bark, then abruptly turned left in the air. Secured by the saddle, Hiccup managed to hold on.

"Oh Geez!" Hiccup pressed down on the pedal, pulling on the rope wrapped around the metal circle. His new use of triangles in the construction allowed a smaller rotation of the pedal to move more rope, so the tailfin opened despite the slack. "YEAH!"

Toothless gave a burbling bark, this new sound a clear exclamation of joy. He pulled out of the turn, now flying straight back toward the cove. The change in the angle of the tail jerked the rope, bruising Hiccup's foot, but otherwise working out fine.

"This is amazing! We actually did it!"

Toothless aimed a little left of the cove, then tried to bank right in a lazy circle around the terrain feature.

The pedal jerked flat, completely out of slack with which to allow Toothless' tail to turn to the right. "Oh. Shoot."

Aggravated, the Night Fury swung its tail left, then back to the right. The metal ring groaned.

"Toothless! Wait, don't-"

The rope snapped, the jerking release utterly destroying any semblance of the serene flight they'd had a moment before.

"OH THOR!"

Hiccup and Toothless dropped, tumbling head over heels over paws over tail. The young Viking lost his grip, spiraling away from the dragon.

"No no no no!" A tree grew larger than the others, its brown trunk swallowing up Hiccup's tumbling world.

And…

-EoT-

Hiccup woke with a jerk and a throbbing headache. In the night sky far away, a dark speck fell toward Raven mind quickly identified it as Toothless.

The young Viking flopped back onto the ground, groaning. "Why, Thor? Odin? Why do you all hate me so, so much? Can't anything just work?"

Hiccup winced at the inevitable crunch of his bola launcher getting smashed.

From the ground, he gave the Monstrous Nightmare a lazy wave. "Hey. You ever get sick of just wrecking our village?"

In response, the dragon growled and clambered closer.

"Yeah, I was sick of me doing that too." Hiccup threw his arms out, still lying on the ground. "Look what I got instead!"

The Monstrous Nightmare's growl intensified as it crept still closer.

Hiccup ignored it. "Again and again and again, this same week. I just…" His voice cracked. "I almost just want it to end."

The dragon was nearly on top of him now.

Hiccup raised his head. "So, do you ever get that-"

The dark of the night vanished in a plume of burning light and fire.

And…

-EoT-

Hiccup woke up screaming, his skin crawling. He rubbed his face, his skin suddenly freezing against even the night air.

Down the hill, the startled Monstrous Nightmare gave a startled squawk, then spewed fire up the hill.

"Thor almigh-" Hiccup bolted, barely avoiding the flames.

Behind him, the Nightmare smashed the bola launcher, then roared at his retreating back.

Hiccup didn't spare it a glance; he was too busy running. He would not let it burn him because that had hurt so much and Gods he didn't want that happening again.

So he ran, involuntary screaming as a blast of fire shot past him and hit a wall of stone. Forgetting all about his prior experience in his rush to escape, he hid right behind the first decent obstacle in his path: the torch tower. As it had in a previous one of Hiccup's attempts at surviving this week, the Nightmare spat fiery saliva all over the base of the tower.

Hiccup, vaguely remembering his own past, looked to his left. He screeched as the dragon's head and sinuous neck appeared from behind the tower, falling backward and away from his cover.

Suddenly, a massive furred shape leaped over the terrified young Viking. Stoick the Vast tackled the Nightmare's head bare-handed, drawing its attention away from Hiccup.

The dragon attempted to bathe Stoick in fiery death. It failed, producing instead only a few measly drops. "You're all out," the chieftain muttered, smiling.

With a few deft kicks and punches, Stoick sent the Nightmare retreating into the sky. The chief turned around, looking at the torch tower's damaged base. Hiccup sucked in his breath, then heard the crack of the wood breaking. The torch tower fell, its giant bowl of fire breaking off and rolling down through the city. Hiccup winced with each sound of destruction, knowing the public humiliation that came next.

"Sorry - Dad," he muttered. His father, Stoick, walked over to him, slowly. Hiccup shrugged helplessly. "I guess that was kinda my fault."

The young Viking didn't complain as the chief hoisted him into the air by the collar of his shirt. Hiccup noticed, though, that Stoick was making a beeline for Gobber. Even in the other timeline, his dad hadn't planned on taking him home himself.

He slumped in his father's grip, muttering, "Maybe I should just kill myself now."

Stoick let go of Hiccup suddenly at the young Viking's mutter. He turned around in time to see his father shake his head, expression unreadable.

Hiccup shrugged, assuming his father had heard him. "Come on, it isn't like I'm helping anybody right now, I mean…" He waved his arm at the trail of destruction.

"Hiccup, ENOUGH!" Stoick glared down at him, then looked around at the other shocked Vikings. "The village has put a great deal of effort into raising you into what you are. I will not let any of that-"

"And what am I, dad?" Hiccup exploded, "What do I do around here that someone else can't do better? Gobber hardly even notices every time I sneak out!"

Stoick shot the one-legged smith a confused glance. Gobber shrugged. "What are you-"

"Forget it! I mean, why spend the effort, right?" Hiccup began walking off, headed toward the cliffs farther down in the village, rather than his home. He found his progress impeded by the destroyed ramp, crushed by the torch tower his handling of the raid had toppled.

"HICCUP!" Stoick bellowed, stomping after him.

Hiccup shrugged. "What, _dad_?" He didn't intend to spit the word, but the way it had come out was certainly venomous, painted by his present mood and cynicism.

"Come here. Now."

At any other time in Hiccup's life, his father's growl would have brought him running. With no threat or consequence to any of his actions, though, Hiccup ignored the implied future punishment and began to edge his way onto the broken boards of the ramp. (He wanted to kill himself, not to break a leg.)

Hiccup's warning was a pair of heavy footsteps on wood, then a massive hand grabbed his collar and held him aloft. "What in Loki's name has gotten into you?!" Stoick bellowed, shouting at him despite being less than an arm's length away.

Uninterested in seeing where any of this attempt at completing the week went, Hiccup took the route of least effort and shrugged as best he could.

Stoick shook him again. "Hiccup, that's not an answer!"

Hiccup splayed his hands helplessly, his frustration returning. "It's not like anyone would believe me even if I told them."

Stoick looked to Gobber for help. "Gobber, have you seen any signs of… this?!"

"I couldn' tell ya, Stoic'. He's been in the forge ev'ry day - late, but not by much. I don' know when or how or wha' he-"

"You thought it was visions from the Gods, Gobber, when I told you," Hiccup said, "Compared it to your tales of the Boneknapper. Told me to learn how to fight dragons."

Stoick gave Gobber a fierce glare. Gobber held up his hand and ax prosthetic in confusion.

"Not that he remembers any of that. I think I've died a half dozen times since then."

Stoick dropped Hiccup again. Not really expecting or preparing for such a response, Hiccup hit the ground awkwardly on his side. "Died?" Stoick breathed, his voice in some strange tone Hiccup had never heard before.

Whispers shot through the crowd as Hiccup rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Yeah. Died. Started over. I don't even know what to call it anymore. I'm sick of living these past few days over and over!"

Stoick shot an entirely different look at Gobber.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and slumped onto his back, pointing at the smith. "For the dragon training schedule, you always went Nadder, Nadder, Gronckle, Nadder, Zippleback. And, yes, Stoick approved your idea for the weapon repairs. Surprisingly, nobody got hurt, either."

Gobber gaped down at his apprentice. Hiccup rolled onto his side, spotting a certain rotund Viking. "Fishlegs, you spent every other night staying up reading the book of dragons. And the fact you probably don't realize you've forgotten yet is a Deadly Nadder's shot limit. It's six."

"I-" Fishlegs stammered.

Hiccup rolled back to a sitting position, looking up at his dad. "Look, dad, I don't care if you believe me or not. I'm just tired. So, please, stop making a fuss and either let me go home or go die again."

Stoick's face was a different kind of unreadable, now.

Hiccup closed his eyes and flopped onto his back. "Or just tie me to a mast and ship me off. That gives me a good way to drown, anyway."

Gobber found words. "Stoic', ya don' think…?"

Someone grabbed Hiccup by his armpits. Blurrily he opened his eyes to his father's face. "Hiccup, the dragon that you killed, where is it now?!"

Hiccup shook his head. "I didn't kill a dragon. Or, not this time around. I mean, my first time I did and… hold on, I didn't mention that. How-"

Stoick shook his son, a sudden glee lighting his eyes. "Where, Hiccup?! Think! Son, this could be the greatest discovery you've ever made for the village."

"Stoic'," Gobber cut in, "Even if tha's the case, i's probably just like the one ol' Bork found! No' a chance it'll hang around here after-"

Hiccup shrugged, still exhausted. "Off Raven Point, usually. I mean, before this whole looping thing started I shot him down and now every time over he crashes-"

Abruptly, he stopped talking. He was telling his dragon killing father all about his trapped best friend, the Night Fury! As if he hadn't been mean enough leaving Toothless trapped all day the last time around, what was he thinking?!

"Wait, I mean-" It was already too late. Stoick dropped him again, already searching the crowd for faces to bring with him on the hunt.

"Gobber, Spitelout, Hoark-"

Gobber raised his ax prosthetic to get attention. "Stoic', hold on." For a brief moment, Hiccup prayed Gobber would somehow stop the hunt. His hopes were immediately dashed. "Someone's who knows wha's goin' on needs ta stay here an' explain to e'ryone else!"

Nodding curtly, Stoick agreed. "You stay here. We can bring you in after someone dies." He turned back to the crowd, continuing to pick out people for the hunt.

At his unintentional, incredibly idiotic mistake, Hiccup's brain began to wake back up. No longer was this timeline just a dead end of fatherly disappointment, now Toothless was in danger! But, also, his dad seemed to know things he shouldn't, and Gobber was in on it too. Hiccup had to tease that secret out before he left this timeline.

He turned to Gobber. "What is my dad talking about?"

Gobber clapped his hand on the flat of his ax prosthetic, clearly excited. "Now this is quite the tale, Hiccup! An' everyone thought my great grandfather Bork went mad when they found his journal!"

The crowd began to move, fully half the people marching off with their chief toward the treeline. Few, if any, seemed to understand what exactly was going on apart from that there was a dragon to hunt.

Hiccup felt torn between figuring out what the heck was going on and going to save Toothless. "This journal, is it still around somewhere?"

Gobber shrugged. "A' course! Your father keeps it up in 'is house, right-"

Hiccup took off sprinting for the house. He could search the whole place by the time Gobber could manage to limp his way up there. He had to get to it, fast!

-EoT-

Hiccup slumped down next to the fire. He'd searched the whole place, but found no sign of any journal!

Someone knocked on the door. Hiccup bolted to his feet and ran over, opening it to find Gobber standing there, his ax prosthetic replaced with his more common stone hammer.

"'iccup! Though' you migh' be up here still." He strolled past Hiccup, into the hut. "You ran off before I coul' tell ya where the book was!"

Hiccup shrugged. "Yeah, well, had a lot on my mind." As Gobber strolled over to the fire, Hiccup continued, "Where, is it, exactly?"

Gobber gave one of the stones on the mantle place a sharp rap, splitting it in two. Inside, Hiccup spied the spine of a leather-bound book. "'ere. Your father figured if anyone came looking, it'd be good ta leave some evidence or some such."

Hiccup wilted a little. There was no way he could smash that stone on his own - especially without his father noticing - in another timeline. He'd have to read it here and now.

Dropping pieces of granite into the fire, Gobber slid the book out of the mantle. "Have a look-see, eh? Must be nice ta know you're no' the only one who wen' through all tha' crazy."

Rushing with urgency, Hiccup snatched the book and opened it. He knew it was only a matter of time before the hunting party found Toothless at the cove and killed him, but on the other hand, this might be his only opportunity to learn more about the strange time powers of his dragon friend.

Unable to pass up the tantalizing opportunity, Hiccup began to read the only entry within the volume.

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **Next time, the tale of dragons. Then things get… very interesting. Not long now until the Romantic Flight, after which we finally reach a real conflict.**

 **And, no, I don't plan to Hiccstrid or Toothcup this story. It's a Romantic Flight in that it's THE Romantic Flight. No real romance is going on.**

 **I'm sure you'll see what I mean.**


	13. Chapter 13 : The Tale Of Dragons

Chapter 13 : The Tale Of Dragons

-EoT-

 _I am Bork the Bold, or as I used to be known, (and perhaps still should be,) Bork the Very, Very Unfortunate. Contained within these few pages is a secret power harnessed by few species of dragon and, until now, even fewer men._

 _Prior to discovering this power, and as you may recall from the tales about my failures, I was cursed by the gods. Every activity in which I partook was doomed to fail. Every object I created or used was destroyed. That is why I received the title of 'Very Very Unfortunate.' It was no fault of mine; (of which I am aware, in any case.) It was just incredibly bad luck. However, that all changed the day I was out hunting boar and I was attacked... by a_ Stormcutter.

 _Out in the woods, far from where I could harm my village, I heard the swooping of dragon wings. Quickly, I readied the bow and arrows I had made (while hiding in a cave that morning before) and prepared to defend myself. Under the tree cover, I could not tell where the dragon was, but I prepared to face it in the direction from which I heard its wingbeat._

 _I prepared wrongly, and the dragon landed behind me. I turned and moved to attack, but the bowstring of my bow snapped in my hands. The dragon reacted by preparing to douse me in flames. With no options, I ran forward brandishing only an arrow. I stabbed at the beast's underbelly and apparently hit a vein or artery as I was doused in its lifeblood. I had little time to celebrate the one small victory in my life as the dragon had finished readying its fire. I remember it burning the flesh from my body, and then I awoke in the cave I had made my home for the night, the sun just rising above the horizon._

 _This may be hard to understand, but I had literally traveled backward in the course of events. The creation of my bow and arrows had not yet happened, I had not yet begun hunting._

 _I had gone backward in time._

 _I never saw that particular dragon again, that I could tell, but this seeming invincibility lasted for many years. I could now investigate dragons with no fear of death, and I took great advantage of the opportunity to research and write The Book Of Dragons. Whenever a dragon, or the climate, or my own bad luck resulted in the loss of my life, I would return to the last moment I had awoken from unconsciousness, and I could change events however I pleased._

 _I write this tale now for you, dear reader, because I believe this invincibility is at an end. I had located a nest buried in ice to the distant north of the Barbaric Archipelago, but when I went to study the dragons there I was attacked. The two dragons that seemed most upset with my presence were the Bewilderbeast (Alpha of the nest) and a pair of Stormcutters (that seemed the Alpha's betas)_

 _I ended up having half my body frozen by the Bewilderbeast's icy breath, then floating away in the sea._

 _When I awoke from this death, I discovered I had not in fact died. The current had brought my body to a passing trading vessel. The traders had done their best for me, medically, and 'saved' my life. Leeches, medicinal herbs, and one blood fever later, I was awake and missing an arm and a leg. As repayment for their services (despite how counterproductive said services were) I made for them a copy of The Book Of Dragons and wrote this journal of the magics which allowed me to gather these facts on the beasts._

 _I plan now to return to the nest and to_ end _those Stormcutters in retribution for my_ years _of deaths, which happened over the course of only a few mortal months._

 _It was the dragon's blood - a Stormcutter's blood - that gave me my invincibility. Since I was 'saved' by the traders, something has changed in me to make me feel that the power I had might be lost. It may have been the leeches, it may have been the blood fever, or it may have been the dragons themselves and that particular icy attack._

 _I will go to the nest tonight. Should I not return, these will be the last words written by Bork the Bold._

 _If you wish to follow in my footsteps, to seek out invincibility through control of time, I bid you fair luck, reader. The best of luck, in fact._

 _You will need it. This path is not for those weak of will or cunning or heart._

-EoT-

Hiccup looked up from the book, struck by how little real information there was. Other than another dragon possibly with some control of time, there was little to no actual usable facts or experimentation. He could hardly blame Bork - the man would have been experimenting with his life, after all - but the lack of anything new frustrated Hiccup nonetheless.

In fact, what little information there was he had already defied by returning further than his last nap. What else could be different about his situation? What had even caused Bork to lose his ability, anyway?

He sought out Gobber, planning to ask if there was more to the story, but the smith had already departed to continue work on repairing the village. Hiccup closed the book…

And…

-EoT-

The sudden jump from sitting upright to lying on his back threw Hiccup's brain for somersaults. He sat up, swaying and rolling onto his side as his balance was utterly wracked.

The grass under his palms put everything together. He had taken too long. Somebody had killed Toothless and entered the time loop, or Toothless had killed somebody who had just entered the loop, as the dragon had once killed him.

He cursed his stupidity and scrambled off the ground, heading for the town square and ignoring the Nightmare surely just about to be on his tail. He had to figure out who else was in the loop and stop them from hurting Toothless again!

The Nightmare noticed his retreat and roared after him. Thankfully, he had made it too far away for the Nightmare to bother pursuing on the ground.

So it took to the air. He was still too close to it this time! It was pursuing him!

Hiccup's heart skipped a beat as a blast of fire landed directly in front of him. He stumbled out of the way, only just in time to miss that fire's follow-up. A dragon claw swept through the air where he had just been, then the Nightmare whipped past.

He almost let himself breathe a sigh of relief, but he swallowed it when he saw what the Monstrous Nightmare did next. The dragon swept its wings hard, coming to a stop and flipping over to land directly in front of him. It was now between him and the torch tower.

"W- Wait, please, don't-"

The dragon sucked in a deep breath. Hiccup shut his eyes and turned away, guarding his face with his arms. He flinched as the last sound he would hear this lifetime echoed out: the sound of fire a sizzling out.

Wait, what?

Hiccup opened his eyes to find a furious Nightmare glaring at someone to his side, water dripping from its snout. Next to Hiccup, Astrid Hofferson held an empty bucket, a few drops still dangling from its rim.

Momentarily, nothing moved. Then Astrid dropped the bucket and grabbed Hiccup's arm, hauling him away from the dragon. "Hiccup! RUN!"

Hiccup stumbled after her as the dragon snapped its jaws shut around the air they'd just been inhabiting. He struggled to remember how to put one foot in front of the other because Astrid Hofferson was holding his arm and how did that even happen what-

Wait.

"A- Astrid?! Why aren't you over by the houses behind-"

Hiccup's sentence was drowned out as the Nightmare clawed its way up a rooftop to their left, hissing at them. "Shut up and keep running," Astrid ordered, dragging him up the path back toward the hilltop he had so recently escaped.

"How did you know to-?"

Astrid glanced over her shoulder, looking past Hiccup at the village behind them. Her eyes widened and she shoved him to the ground, landing atop him as the Nightmare once again swooped overhead.

"H- Hold on, have you had a chance to practice this-?"

Astrid hauled him up, turning him around and shoving him back down the pathway as the dragon hissed from further up. "Do you ever shut up?!" Astrid whispered, shoving him harder.

Re-entering the square, Hiccup spotted his father just reaching the top of the ramp. "Dad!"

Astrid cut in. "Chief! A Nightmare-"

Hiccup - given a large shove - hit the ground hard, Astrid landing atop him as the dragon swept overhead again. Stoick, for his part, gave the dragon a solid smack to the hindclaw as it passed him.

Realizing all its easy prey was now protected or stronger than it previously appeared, the Nightmare gave an angry roar and flew off. Many of the other dragons followed it into the night.

Hiccup waited until Astrid stood - an action that for some reason required kneeing him in the middle of the back - then stood himself and turned to face her. "Astrid! Why were you-"

"Chief Stoick! I…" Astrid faltered as if unsure how to explain something.

Hiccup realized something, the pieces fitting together so well he was surprised his brain didn't make an audible click. Astrid Hofferson was the number one student in dragon training every time he managed to get that far. On top of that, she'd been in the crowd of Vikings for every one of Hiccup's humiliations and celebrations due to the Nightmare.

In his latest humiliation, when he snapped and told the village almost everything, Astrid had heard about where the Night Fury was and immediately had taken off on her own, he guessed.

If she had gotten to Toothless before the other Vikings, then she was probably in the time loop with him. She might not know every single time he'd faced the Nightmare, but she knew the most recent timeline and the destruction that came with it.

Being the eager dragonslayer she was, Astrid was trying to find a way to explain the time loop she'd just experienced to everybody, so they could go kill Toothless again.

"Astrid!" Hiccup cut in, "I don't think it would be a really great idea if you mentioned-"

Suddenly, Hiccup found an angry finger pointing at his nose from inches away, an intense glare not far behind. He thanked the Gods that Astrid didn't have her ax on her. "You KNEW about this, didn't you?! You were actually in this… this immortality - and you didn't TELL anyone?!"

Hiccup raised his hands, backing away, cowed by Astrid's intensity.

"And if you just kept going back, and you knew where that dragon landed…"

"Wait! Astrid, please don't finish that thought!"

"You son of Loki!" She stepped forward into Hiccup's personal space, her finger pointing still more aggressively into his face. "You've been keeping this from the whole village! You-" Astrid lashed out, trying to grab Hiccup's shirt.

Hiccup jerked, lifted into the air by his vest. Astrid drifted a little farther away, pulled away from him by another massive arm. "What's going on here?!" Stoick's booming voice cut the growing argument to shreds.

"Hiccup's been hiding a Night Fury in the woods!" Astrid shouted, twisting in Stoick's grip and trying to lay a hand on Hiccup.

The growing crowd of Vikings looked on in disbelief, some even chuckling at the proposition.

Hiccup decided to try to play into the crowd's disbelief. "Oh, yeah. Sure. Because little Hiccup the Useless could singlehandedly hide Lightning and Death Itself behind a bunch of trees. Great detective work, there." Attempting to look nonplussed, Hiccup crossed his arms as he hung from his father's grip.

Stoick joined the chuckling side of the crowd, expressing his position with a brief couple laughs of his own. "Why, Astrid, now lass, what in Thor's name gave you that idea?"

"It's true!" Astrid shouted, "It's in a cove, by Raven Point! We have to get a search party out there, before-"

Hiccup thought fast. "Astrid, we don't have time to go chasing imaginary dragons! We have an entire village to feed, right here!"

He almost missed it, but Hiccup thought he saw his father's beard rustle in a nigh-imperceptible Nod Of Fatherly Approval. "He's right, lass."

Hiccup could almost see the floodgates of rage open behind Astrid's eyes. He felt himself wilt emotionally, upset at having to so forcefully discredit the Astrid Hofferson. On the other hand, he was protecting Toothless. That was worth something, right?

"You dirty, slimy, ice giant son of Loki and a bilge rat-!" A man, Astrid's father, broke out of the crowd. He took Astrid from Stoick, interrupting her tirade, then gave her several harsh words in a quiet, but stern, whisper.

Stoick, meanwhile, set Hiccup down. "Hiccup," Stoick asked quietly, "Do you have any idea what's gotten into Astrid? This certainly isn't like her at all."

"I have no idea," Hiccup lied.

Astrid broke away from her father, pointing a lethally accusatory finger his way. "You won't get away with this, Hiccup! I'm going to prove that Night Fury was real!"

She turned and stormed through the crowd, heading for her own home. Mr. and Ms. Hofferson followed, struggling to keep pace with their furious daughter. The crowd of remaining Vikings shared confused and bemused glances.

Stoick stroked his beard, frowning in deep thought. Hiccup shot a furtive glance at his dad and thought he saw his father doing the same to him.

The chieftain came to a decision, rolling his broad shoulders. "Well, not much to be done about it now. Gobber, later today we should send somebody out there to check for this Night Fury - Hoark, or Mr. Hofferson."

Gobber nodded. "Righ'! I'll do my best ta remember ta remind you."

Hiccup quietly edged his way into the crowd, looking to escape into the forest to free Toothless before his father's "later today" arrived.

Turning to the crowd, Stoick bellowed, "The rest of you! Start tallying our losses. If there are any repairs that need doing to keep a wall or roof from coming down, do them. Mulch, get me a count of our fish stores. You, there, Sven, count the remaining sheep…"

His father's booming voice faded into the background as Hiccup escaped the crowd and the square, heading for the trees.

-EoT-


	14. Chapter 14 : Three's a Crowd

Chapter 14 : Three's a Crowd

-EoT-

After finding the usual crash site devoid of dragon or damage, Hiccup slipped into the cove. He descended without great incident, until the moment his feet touched the soil level with the water's edge.

A black shape shot out from somewhere in the rocks he'd just descended, jaws clamping shut around his midsection. Hiccup barely had time to form his mouth into a scream before he was swept off the ground. He waited for a crunch of teeth crushing his torso, for a burning pain of some kind.

Instead, air swept over him, followed by a splashing cold. He blinked and spluttered, struggling to keep his head above the water as Toothless stared reproachfully from shore.

"Oh, you toss ME in the water then give me a look like I'M the one who did something wrong?!"

The Night Fury's lip curled into a snarl and he turned resolutely around, ignoring Hiccup as the young Viking splashed his muddy way back onto shore.

Hiccup spat out some lake muck that had gotten stuck under his tongue. "Bud, I'm trying to be helpful. I'm still really sorry I shot you down." He walked toward the dragon, hands visible and empty. "I'm trying, okay? Just… can you find it in you to forgive-"

As suddenly as Toothless had emerged from his hiding spot in the rocks, he spun and tackled Hiccup. The young Viking waited for the disgusting licking of the dragon's forgiveness.

Toothless roared a cry that sounded like the big dragon was in pain. The Night Fury stumbled, accidentally stepping on one of Hiccup's legs in an effort to keep his balance against whatever assailed him. Hiccup screamed as something in his leg snapped.

Realizing his mistake, Toothless moved away from Hiccup and took up a defensive position behind the young Viking, growling at some unseen threat beyond. As Toothless moved, something gleaming and metal fell into the lake water.

Before it sank below the surface, Hiccup identified it as a battle-ax - A very specific battle-ax. He noted that one blade was stained red before it sank into the water's murk.

"Slimy bilge rat son of a half troll!" Astrid spat, emerging from the cove entrance path. "You're a traitor! You betrayed your village - your HOME - for A DRAGON?! And, here you are, begging IT for forgiveness?!"

Clutching his leg and groaning in pain, Hiccup couldn't formulate a reply.

"You're sick. You're disgusting! You don't deserve the title of Viking!" Astrid pointed at him, advancing. Toothless' growl grew in amplitude. "I'm going to prove this to the village! I'm going to get every last villager down here and-"

Hiccup shielded his eyes from the purple explosion and the dim wave of heat that came with it.

And…

-EoT-

Going from splitting pain in his leg to utter normalcy in a flash threw Hiccup's brain for a loop. He gasped, the limb jerking for a moment as it realized it could operate without issue.

Still sucking air, Hiccup stumbled to his feet and took off toward the forest as soon as he could move. He couldn't afford to be spotted by the Nightmare again, nor could he give Astrid extra time.

There was one thing he could do: find Toothless, free him, get him moved elsewhere, then return home. The search party would find nothing, Astrid would be discredited, and Hiccup would have a day or two to build a saddle. Maybe.

Ignoring the village and his father's house entirely, Hiccup ran into the tree line and left the clamor of the raid behind…

Only to get tackled from behind by something small and snarling.

"Oh no. You're not running back to your scaly friend now, traitor!" Astrid spat as she held Hiccup to the ground.

"A- Astrid!" Hiccup stammered, "You just don't get it! I- If you'd just give him a cha-"

"Shut up!" Astrid jabbed Hiccup in the back of the neck, hard. Hiccup's spine tingled, straining under the force of the blow. He shut up, for fear she'd do actual painful harm. "You didn't just get blasted to pieces by a dragon! You didn't get to feel claws ripping out your own throat as your own ax cuts off your arm."

Astrid hoisted Hiccup onto his feet, holding his arm at an angle he was sure was centimeters from snapping his arm out of his socket. Tears sprung to his eyes from the pain.

"Dragons have killed _hundreds_ of us, Hiccup! Real pain and suffering that doesn't undo itself like it did for us! People are _dead_ because of dragons!"

Astrid gave Hiccup a shove back toward the village, lifting his arm to the point where he had to stumble a few steps on tiptoes.

"But you don't understand that, do you?! Oh no. You just went right off to work with them. To beg forgiveness from them when you failed at whatever it is they wanted you to do. It's you, _traitor_. _You don't get it._ "

Hiccup slumped, even though it put more strain on his arm. Maybe she was right. Here he was with this immortality, and what was he doing with it? Trying to fix the enemy's problems?

Astrid snorted, a humorless sound of contempt and anger. "I bet no dragon has even laid a claw on you, except for your black beast's mistake with your leg that last time around."

Hiccup's mind did a summersault, flipping around almost immediately. Astrid's last sentence caught his attention. She actually realized Toothless hadn't meant to harm him! And she was wrong, too. He had not gone nearly as unscathed as she thought. "You're wrong," he said, the words slipping out before he had thought them through.

Astrid gave Hiccup a hard shove in his captive arm, the pain causing him to trip and fall to the ground. Thankfully for his shoulder, she released him as he fell. He turned over, looking at her as she spoke. "Tell me that to my face. Tell me that all those human lives don't matter. Tell me that pain - a pain you've clearly never experienced - is just an early morning breakfast for you and your dragon pals!"

"When I first met Toothless," Hiccup said, looking away, "he was completely helpless in my bola. He was like a Snoggletog present: wrapped up and ready to give me all the fame in the village I'd ever want."

Astrid, surprisingly, decided to see where he was going with this. The righteous fury etched onto her face became no less fierce, though.

"I couldn't kill him. I looked at him and… he was terrified, Astrid." Hiccup shrugged. "So I cut him loose. And accidentally nicked his neck. He… actually bit my head off.

"Figures," Astrid snarled, "A dragon would thank you by killing you."

Hiccup stood up. "I know you're not going to believe me, but… he changed! He only hurt me because he was scared and in pain. The next time I met him, he didn't hurt me at all!" He recalled how Toothless had tossed him into the lake, off the cliff face. The dragon could easily have bit down, taken off a shoulder or a leg, but he didn't.

"And, what, deciding not to kill someone is supposed to outweigh seven generations of war?!" Astrid shouted, "That doesn't change anything, Hiccup!"

"It does for me." Hiccup balled his fists. "This doesn't have to be a war! We could come to an agreement with them! We could figure out some way to have peace!"

"And we'll end up starving in the process! They're attacking to take our food, Hiccup! If we don't stop them, we'll have nothing to eat!"

Hiccup stopped, staring. Astrid froze too. She hadn't denied that communication was possible. She hadn't denied that a deal was possible, only pointed out its infeasibility.

"You're out of your mind," Astrid snarled, grabbing his arm. "Come on. We're going to see your father, and this time, you won't trick me into making a fool of myself."

Hiccup dug his heels in. "Astrid, wait. They'll kill Toothless!"

"And?!" She turned to look at him, "Look at what doing that gave us! Why do you want to keep this from the village?!"

"Because-"

"Keep _what_ from the village?" a deep voice boomed, interrupting their conversation. Hiccup slowly turned around, only to come face to belt-buckle with some massive person.

"D- Dad?!"

"Half the village heard you two shouting up here when the raid ended," said the massive expanse of beard looming above him. "What exactly is it you're keeping from the village, son?"

"I-"

"He's hiding a Night Fury in the woods and has the ability to go back in time whenever he dies!"

Stoick and the crowd gathering on the hill behind him took a long moment to let that sink in. "A Night Fury?" "Impossible!" "Nobody's ever seen one!" "Go back in time?"

Hiccup backed away. "Uhh…"

Astrid pointed an accusatory finger his way. "I've seen the Night Fury! You have to believe me! Hiccup's a traitor!"

"... to go back in time?" Stoick muttered, awestruck. Gobber gaped.

Hiccup took a few more steps back, his hand brushing against his vest as he moved. He felt his knife, lodged safely in his belt.

"Please! Let me lead a search party! All of this is true, I'll prove it!"

"Astrid!" Mr. Hofferson shouted, bursting from the crowd, "That's enough! These are serious accusations to make about-"

A massive hand smacked into Mr. Hofferson, halting his progress and his sentence. He stumbled backward, falling to the ground. Numerous eyes followed the arm to its source.

Stoick spoke. "Hiccup… you were _hiding_ the Night Fury?"

Hiccup fidgeted, trying to find an offended but nonchalant posture. He settled on crossing his arms, meekly. "I- I don't know what you're talking about."

"He's lying!" Astrid shouted.

Uncrossing his arms, Hiccup gave up pretenses. "Astrid, please, don't do this!" Villagers stared at him, and he realized that he really blew it.

Stoick looked stricken, frozen as if experiencing a recurring nightmare. Gobber continued to gape, his stone tooth falling out onto his tongue. Other Vikings' expressions weren't nearly as static, or as kind.

"Grab him!" someone shouted.

Hiccup bolted, pushing his long legs to their limits. Astrid, taller and more exercised than he, kept pace not far behind. The other villagers and their stubby legs lost the two of them as soon as they entered the treeline, though.

"Hiccup! Get back here!" Astrid growled.

Hiccup realized that, if she had her ax, she would have planted it in his back by now. As he fumbled with his vest, he thanked the Gods that she hadn't had it with her on fire patrol duty, where the timeline began.

"You're making this worse for yourself, traitor!"

Hiccup drew his knife, stumbling over a root. He just had to die, right?

Astrid took advantage of his stumble, leaping forward and wrapping her arms around his waist. Hiccup fell, his arms reaching out to catch his fall.

The pain was excruciating as something drove into him. He lay where he fell, face buried in the dirt, as under him it felt like his chest was ripping itself apart.

Astrid scrambled up, noticed his stillness, then flipped him over. Whatever had injured him, she gasped at and turned away.

His vision fading, Hiccup glanced down to find a nub of metal sticking out of his chest. Numbly, he realized the ground had driven his own knife into him with great force.

He made a mental note to never die this way again.

And…

-EoT-

Hiccup gasped for air as his suddenly intact heart skipped a few beats. Among the stars in the sky, he picked out the speck that was Toothless making his descent toward Raven Point.

Unable to fully process everything that had been happening, Hiccup lay on the ground - playing dead for the Nightmare - his mind a whirlwind. Astrid had turned everything upside-down. He didn't stand a chance against her, or the scenarios she kept creating.

What in Thor's name was he supposed to do?

 _She hadn't denied that communication was possible. She hadn't denied that a deal was possible._

Maybe - just maybe - he could make her see that dragons weren't the vicious beasts she had convinced herself they were. If he could just get her to spend one timeline with Toothless as a friend, not a foe, that would fix everything!

Hiccup sat up as air washed over him. The Nightmare, losing interest in his limp form, had taken off to find someplace else to attack. Another threat approached quickly, though, her blonde hair shimmering in the night.

"You didn't need my help to avoid burning down the village after all. You were just doing that for, what, fun?"

"What-"

Astrid hoisted him up by the front of his collar. "That dragon just ignored you! Don't think for a second I didn't see that!"

"No, Astrid-"

She began to drag him by his shirt - even against his dug-in heels - toward the village center. "Come on, then, before one of us ends up dead."

"Astrid, that dragon has killed me in the past as well!"

Astrid snorted, continuing to drag him. Hiccup smacked at her hand and she let them stumble to a halt, glaring at him.

"You kept saying that I don't know what it's like to die by dragon, but I do! Toothless bit my head off! A Gronckle in the training arena sat on me! That Monstrous Nightmare back there? It roasted me alive, literally the life before I spilled everything!"

Astrid glared at him, still, but he noticed her gaze had drifted to a spot on his chest. Hiccup looked down, but he looked fine.

"Uhh… is there something wrong with-"

Astrid's gaze shot back up to his face, hardening instantly. "Just… Hiccup, come along quietly. We can forget about the other… lives, if you just give up the dragon."

Hiccup took a step back, toward the hilltop and the trees beyond. "No."

Grasping reflexively, Astrid reached for her ax to threaten Hiccup. As she'd been on fire patrol, her ax wasn't there. She let out a snarl, her gaze drifting to his chest again.

"Okay, what is it about my-"

"What do you want."

Hiccup almost missed the words Astrid bit out under his own talking. Once his brain processed what she'd said, he froze up. What was she asking? Was she going along with him? Letting him go? Or, at least, negotiating? Unable to formulate a sane response on the spot, his brain produced a simple, "Uhh… What?"

"It's pretty clear you're not going to be reasonable," Astrid said, waving in the direction of him and the forest beyond, "so I want to see what in Hel's name you're trying to do."

Still struggling to understand Astrid's sudden reversal, Hiccup asked, "So you're not going to take me to my dad?"

Astrid sighed through her nose. "Only because you'll try to kill yourself if I do."

Hiccup pumped his arms. "Yes! Thank you!"

Astrid caught one of his arms and pulled him close, glaring from well within his personal space. "This doesn't change the fact that you're a traitor, or that the village needs that dragon and this power. If you do anything that threatens Berk, I will tell your dad everything in a heartbeat."

Finding himself released, Hiccup stumbled back, barely avoiding tripping.

"So, what first?"

"W- Well, first I need to make sure you didn't ruin my friendship with Toothless," Hiccup said, deflating. "That'll probably take some fish."

Astrid hardened into stone. "Where will you be getting these fish?"

Hiccup stared back. "The… storehouse?"

Astrid grabbed his arm again. "Stealing village food for a dragon?! We're going to your dad."

"Oh come on!"

-EoT-

Thankfully, their conversation had not been heated enough to draw the attention of the other villagers. Before they made it back to the town, Hiccup managed to talk Astrid into not freaking out too much about feeding the dragon, at least temporarily.

Hiccup tripped over a branch, the basketful of fish on his back smacked into a tree as they made their ponderous way through the forest. Astrid snorted.

Downside: Astrid was coming with him to make sure the dragon didn't just fly off with the food.

"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be anywhere near Toothless? I mean, you did kill him."

"And?" Astrid jumped onto a rock just off the path Hiccup made in the vegetation, juggling her ax between her hands, "You did too, and you claim he's perfectly fine with you now."

"There was no indication the injury I inflicted was lethal," Hiccup defended. "And I hurt him accidentally, anyway."

Finding the crevice that led into the cove, Hiccup began to descend.

"Toothless is just as intelligent as a Viking, if not more so. You can't just assume you can do things to him and he'll just get over it. He-"

Whatever defense Hiccup was preparing for Toothless, it disappeared utterly as something grabbed the basket of fish from behind, shaking him. A ripping noise, followed by a multitude of wet splats, indicated that the basket had been torn open. Free from whatever grabbed the other side of the basket, Hiccup flew from the tumble of rocks allowing entry to the cove and splashed down hard into the water.

When he surfaced, he found a growling Astrid hefting her ax between a rumbling Toothless and a pile of spilled fish.

"Oh Thor," Hiccup moaned into the lake water.

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **==Anonymous review replies==**

 **Secret:**

 **No, nobody else is joining the loop. I have enough trouble managing two people as it is, XD. Actually, we're not terribly far from an incredibly huge turning point, either next chapter or the one after. Every chapter between Astrid joining and then is a sort of bridge between Hiccup & Toothless & Time Travel shenanigans to real actual danger. Astrid looks like real actual danger, but she's a pushover compared to what's coming.**

 **Oh, as for my writing quality, it's a number of things. First, the work I actually release is maybe half of the work I actually do. I have some crazy good stuff sitting in various "scrap" folders because it didn't fit or I couldn't make it as good as it felt it needed to be.**

 **Finally, for spelling and grammar, I just read the stories over again an hour or four after writing. I do that maybe two or three times, then run it through Grammarly regular for a final check. Grammarly usually tries to mangle all of my character accents and carefully crafted non-sentences, but sometimes it does catch legitimate errors like my comma overuse.**

 **Thanks for reading! Have fun!**

 **~M**

 **SunnySides:**

 **How will the time travel end? Well, we've already seen Bork's loop end, and why. As long as Toothless doesn't get** _ **actually**_ **killed the way Bork was nearly killed, the loop will continue for everyone in it.**

 **However, Bork's circumstances allow…**

 **Well, anyway, that's something that'll come up in Chapter 16, if Chapter 15 goes as I plan. Worst case, some kind of fluff happens and it gets pushed to 17. No big deal, because either way it'll be mind blowing when we get there.**

 **Er, actually… some vanilla plot might shove that off to 18. Oh, dangit.**

 **Well, anyway, great stuff is coming! Have fun!**

 **~M**


	15. Chapter 15 : Leave at That

Chapter 15 : Leave at That

-EoT-

"STOOOP!" Hiccup shouted, scrambling from the water to get into the middle of the tense situation, "STOP!" Desperately, he threw up his hands between both Astrid and Toothless, a palm out to each.

"What the Hel, Hiccup?!" Astrid demanded, "That dragon just attacked you, and you're taking its side?!"

Toothless growled, pawing the ground. Hiccup decided to focus on Astrid, turning fully to face her, hands open. "Astrid, you're just scaring him! If you-"

"If you tell me to put down my ax, I WILL kill one of you!"

Hiccup turned back around, looking to Toothless. "Bud, she just doesn't-"

With a snarl, Toothless advanced a step toward Astrid, and the pile of fish beyond.

Spinning around once more, Hiccup pleaded with Astrid, "Fine! Fine, keep the ax! Just, maybe… step aside? A bit?"

"Why? So he can take all this fish and leave?!" Astrid demanded.

Toothless bumped Hiccup's side, his growling intensifying. "W- Well, it's that or wait for him to get impatient enough to kill you again!"

Astrid stared daggers at the scaly beast next to Hiccup, then grudgingly took a few steps toward the lake. She didn't lower her ax a fingerwidth, though.

"Thank you!" Hiccup breathlessly exclaimed as Toothless warily circled a little toward the wall of the cove.

Slowly, the scaly sharpshooter and the human warrior orbited a common center until they reached positions opposite where they began: Astrid next to Hiccup, Toothless near the fish.

Unwilling to leave himself unaware, the Night Fury backed up until the fish were between him in the humans, then began to eat without taking his eyes off them.

Astrid, finally, tore herself away long enough to glance at Hiccup. "What's going to stop it flying off after it gorges itself on our fish?"

Hiccup blinked. Had he really not mentioned…? "Toothless can't fly, Astrid. That's why he always ends up stuck in here. When time resets, it's just after I hit him with the bola. He's lost a tailfin."

After a silent moment, filled only by the crunching of fish bones in the not-very-toothless mouth of Toothless, Astrid asked, "Why do you care?"

Hiccup struggled to retort. Eventually, he came up with, "If I were him, I wouldn't want to be alone."

Astrid threw up her hands, ax slicing through the air up and down. "That's a terrible reason, Hiccup! You're betraying your village, your HOME! You have to have something better than that!"

Hiccup shrugged. Astrid stared at him. The scrawnier Viking shook his head. "I just don't see any more reason than that. He's not a mindless beast, and he's in pain. He's scared. I feel like I need to help him."

"Help him how?" Astrid demanded, "You can't keep stealing from the village! I won't allow it; we can't afford it!" She hefted her ax in both hands, threateningly. "What do you plan to do?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Hiccup answered, "I'm going to build him a new tailf-"

Black shot across his vision, tackling Astrid and sending the gleaming ax tumbling away across the cove. Before he really registered what was happening, an arc of red splashed the ground in front of him.

And…

-EoT-

Hiccup shot awake, pulling something in his back as he threw himself onto his feet. He bolted for the forest, knowing he had at most a minute or two before Astrid got her ax and headed to the cove to try again to kill Toothless.

He could guess why the Night Fury had attacked; Astrid's ax-wielding had looked pretty threatening to his person. While it warmed his heart to know his friendship with the dragon wasn't ruined by the whole Astrid issue, it didn't help anything that he'd attacked her!

Hiccup made it into the forest without incident, downright confirming that Astrid was going to her house to fetch her ax. Almost hyperventilating, Hiccup ran for the cove as fast as possible for his scrawny, running-built frame.

-EoT-

Hiccup dropped into the cove at a stumbling pace, breathing hard from his run. He could see the wispy ends of ropes floating in the lake, from where his friendly Night Fury had freed himself.

However, the black dragon was nowhere to be seen.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted, looking around, "Bud! We have to go! You've really made Astrid-"

Hiccup froze as a loud metal clang echoed across the cove. "Made me _what_ , traitor?"

Slowly, Hiccup looked up to where Astrid had smacked the flat of her ax against the cliff wall. Bits of stone and dust still fell from the dent it left in the rock face. He dry-swallowed.

Astrid hopped her way down, twirling the ax in her hand. She closed on Hiccup quickly, then swept his feet out from under him with a sharp kick. "THAT was for the lies!"

Hiccup struggled to reach a sitting position as Astrid poised her ax over him.

She dropped the ax handle-first on his navel, causing him to groan involuntarily. "THAT was for EVERYTHING ELSE!"

Hiccup curled up on the ground, holding his bruised diaphragm. Astrid pushed him onto his back with her foot, then trapped his neck between the blades of the ax.

"Where is he?" Astrid demanded.

The scrawny Viking blinked. "W- Wait, you didn't call him an-"

He saw Astrid glance up, her eyes' focus rapidly closing. He struggled to scramble to his feet as she released him from her ax, but it was already too late. Toothless shot over him, tackling Astrid to the ground.

"TOOTHLESS, STOP!" Hiccup shouted, reaching his feet and stumbling around to the dragon's front.

Astrid was helpless, her ax knocked dozens of paces away. Just above her, Toothless' throat glowed with purple fire.

"DON'T!" Hiccup shouted, throwing himself forward and reaching for Toothless' head.

He missed, one of his arms going right up Toothless' throat.

The Night Fury gagged, coughing up the limb immediately. In so doing, whatever gasses he'd been preparing to blast on Astrid dissipated. She growled and struggled, trying to free herself from the dragon's forepaws.

"Toothless, don't hurt her. It'll only throw us back in time again!"

Astrid snarled, "You Hel damned traitor! Next time, I'm going straight to your father!"

"Look, j- just-" Hiccup held out his hands, but he couldn't really get between them with Toothless holding Astrid down. "Hold her there," Hiccup said, pointing to where Astrid was.

As the blonde warrior struggled against several tons of fire-breathing reptile, Hiccup collected her ax from the ground where it had fallen and, with some effort, tossed it deep into the lake.

Finally, Astrid gave up. She glared at Hiccup as best she could from her position under Toothless, as Hiccup came back over.

"Astrid, please! Could you just give Toothless a chance and not try to kill him? Or me?"

"Your dragon," she spat, "killed ME last time around! For having a conversation!"

Hiccup rubbed his neck. That _was_ true, to a point. "Look, both of you. Could you just… stay here? And not kill each other?"

"Why should I?" Astrid snapped. Toothless made a similar sound of discontent.

"Well, I'll make Toothless a new tailfin, then we'll get off or Berk. Gone. Leave." He regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth - Berk was his home, after all - but if it was what it took to protect Toothless, he'd do it.

"You're just going to take this immortality?" Astrid demanded, "the village's best chance against the dragons?! And leave?!"

"It's not like I'm stealing it, Astrid!" Hiccup shot back, "Toothless doesn't belong to them! And you'll still have it! If you don't like something, just go back and change it!"

Astrid fell silent.

"This…" Hiccup's voice broke. "This works for everybody. I disappear, you get immortality, and nobody hurts Toothless. Please, Astrid."

"Fine," Astrid spat, "but get your dragon off me."

"Toothless," Hiccup beckoned. The dragon gave Astrid a long look, then slowly let her up, moving over to Hiccup.

Astrid sat up and glared at Hiccup, crossing her arms. After an awkward moment, she said, "Well? What are you waiting for? Take your dragon and leave!"

"Well…" Hiccup mumbled, "I kind of… have to build him a new tail…"

Astrid's gaze shot to Toothless' tail and its missing fin. "Then go build it," she spat, "and get out of here."

Hiccup turned and began to clamber up the rocks, on his way out of the cove.

"I'll be here with the Night Fury!" Astrid shouted, "And the moment you come back to him, I'm going back to the village to spill everything! So you better run, Hiccup!"

Hiccup fell into darkness as he clambered up into the crevice, then took off at a run through the trees.

-EoT-

"Hiccu'? Where 'ave you-"

Hiccup bustled past Gobber, setting down the rope from the storehouse and the pile of leather straps in his backroom. He took the basket he'd carried it all in back out into the forge area.

"Wha's all this for? You shoul'a been helpin' me with repairs this mornin' ya know!"

Hiccup took a knife and began to saw the basket in half. He didn't have time to weave a saddle, nor did he want to do that again. The basket would do alright for a sitting surface, and for the structure against which he'd mount the pedal.

"Your father was worried sick when I told 'im you'd run off in the raid! An' then Astrid ran home, took 'er ax, an' left too! Where'd she go, anyway?"

Having finished cutting the basket, Hiccup began to sew a border of leather around the edge, to make sure the saddle would last at least a little while.

Gobber put his good hand on Hiccup's work, halting his progress. "Wha's gotten into you, lad? You 'aven't said a word!"

Hiccup didn't look up. He didn't have time for this; he just wanted to finish the saddle and get off Berk. "I'm busy," he snapped.

"I can see tha'! With what, is wha' I want to know!"

Hiccup gave Gobber a deadpan stare. "A saddle for operating a prosthetic tail for a Night Fury I shot down. Or, in other words, a way to end the war between humans and dragons."

Gobber's mouth worked. "Well… now tha's real inventive," the smith stammered. "Say, wha'd you make this Night Fury out of?"

Hiccup shoved Gobber's hand off the saddle and continued stitching. "Ha ha, real funny. Just let me finish this so I can…" he trailed off.

"So you can wha', Hiccup?" Gobber asked. When Hiccup looked up, he saw that his mentor was genuinely concerned.

"It's not like you believe me anyway." Hiccup finished the stitching of the border and grabbed a scrap of leather, forgoing a buckle. He knew Toothless' size and - even if he didn't get it quite right - he had enough experience to do small fittings in the field.

Gobber shrugged. "I's hard ta believe somethin' you don't know anythin' about."

Hiccup lost focus on his craftsmanship, processing the statement. The bone needle stabbed through the leather again, into his thumb. "Agh!"

The forge master swiped the saddle off the worktable as Hiccup clutched his thumb. He poked the needle into a spot on the leather to store it, then dropped the whole craft on a table a few steps away. "Tha's it! No more forgework fo' you, until you explain exactly wha's goin' on."

Apprentice and forge master stared one another down. Hiccup lost. "Fine! Fine. I'm in a time loop, like Bork the Bold." Hiccup had an idea, though. The only dragon Gobber knew of that could cause the loop was a Stormcutter. There was no reason to mention that the Night Fury had put him into his.

Gobber gaped. "I- y'what?! For how long?! How'd you manage tha'?!"

"It's a long story," Hiccup hedged, "Now can you please let me finish this saddle?"

Hiccup tried to get around the forge master. Gobber was having none of that. "No' until you tell me why you're makin' it, lad! Are you tellin' me tha' you actually shot down a Night Fury? An' i's here on Berk?"

Hiccup threw up his hands. "It's a long story! And…" He sighed, feigning exhaustion. "Trust me, we have to finish this saddle rig…" He yawned, "before I fall asleep again, unless you want something _really_ bad to happen."

The smith's attempts to contain his own curiosity were obvious. As his only source of information about the time loop came from Bork's extra journal, he had to assume that Hiccup was right. He inferred from that tale that if his apprentice slept, then the time loop would be set forward to that point.

"Now, please, can I have that saddle back?" Hiccup asked.

Gobber hesitated, then brought the saddle back over. Hiccup began to stitch again, smearing some blood from his stuck thumb on it in his haste. "So… you said this Nigh' Fury needed a prosthetic tail?"

"Yes," Hiccup said, grabbing the metal plate he used for the pedal and tying a leather strap around it. It didn't have to be pretty, it just had to work.

"Then… why are you helpin' it fly? An' why a saddle, an' not some kind of prosthetic it can operate?"

Hiccup groaned. Gobber was way too inquisitive. "Look, I might be able to explain all of that later. For now, could you make some round metal poles about…" He drew a circle on the table next to him with the needle and some of his own blood, "that big around. I need…" He drew five lines, three long and two short. "Three of that length and two of that one."

Gobber grumbled but set to work. Hiccup wiped his brow and continued to attach the pedal to the saddle straps.

He hoped to the Gods that Astrid wouldn't get bored and kill Toothless, or end up dead herself. Then he'd have to start all over, and Astrid might not be up for deal-making again.

-EoT-

"Alrigh', Hiccup. I's finished. Wha's next?"

Hiccup looked at the saddle and fin assembly laid out on the worktable. It had taken the two of them well into the afternoon, but still long before evening. He checked every component, up and down, then compared them with his mental mechanical model of their previous flights.

Left. Right. Up. Down. This new assembly - with all the setup he'd done on the metal ring around Toothless' leg - should cover every direction.

This was it. It was time to fly away or, failing that, to piss off Astrid and end up in a permanent fight against his own village.

Hiccup began bundling up the whole assembly. "Now I leave."

Gobber threw up his hands. "Goin' where?! I though' you said I'd ge' some answers, 'Iccup!"

Hiccup scooped up the bundle. "That was a someday, Gobber. Not a later today. Look, I really have to go before Astrid-" He cut himself off. He hadn't mentioned Astrid before.

"Before she wha', Hiccup?" Gobber asked, exasperated.

"See you later, Gobber!" Hiccup said, sprinting out of the forge with the bundle in his arms…

… and running headlong into his dad. "Hiccup? Where were you all-"

The scrawny Viking ducked past his father and kept running, the bundle in his arms clanking and rustling as he moved.

"Oi! Y' can't just leave i' at tha'!" Gobber shouted after Hiccup. Stoick gave him a confused glance, but Hiccup was already out of the village square.

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **Oh yes, I can, readers. See you next week!**


	16. Chapter 16 : Irregularity

Chapter 16 : Irregularity

-EoT-

 **Astrid Hofferson PoR (Point of Reference)**

The female warrior glared at the black demon. Lightning and Death itself stared back, inquisitively, its paws crossed like in a drawing of a cat Astrid had once glimpsed in a book Fishlegs had bought from Trader Johann. She sat a good dozen paces away, by the water's edge.

Almost an hour had passed since Hiccup had left to "build Toothless a new tailfin." Astrid wondered if he was serious, or just buying time to mess with the village. Nonetheless, she was honorable even if he wasn't, so she was still here.

The dragon sunned itself near some rocks, its wings spread wide, despite sitting upright. He watched her with large, green orbs. His eyes were the same shade as Hiccup's.

Both of them had given up on remaining tense in the other's presence.

The quiet chirping of birds and buzzing of insects finally got to Astrid. Unable to resist any longer, she acknowledged the Night Fury and tried to broach a conversation. "So how'd you do it?"

Toothless cocked his head at her. She imagined putting an ax in the middle of that stupid spade-shaped face but cringed when her mind replaced the black scales around the eyes with pink, freckled flesh.

For some reason, she kept flashing back to Hiccup's own knife embedded in his chest. It just… it wasn't the same as considering fighting the mindless dragons. Hiccup was Hiccup, even if he was a traitor.

Hiccup was a person. And now here she was acknowledging a dragon as worthy of speaking to, as a person.

"Shut up! Forget I said anything!" Astrid snapped, leaping to her feet and walking off around the lake.

The dragon, made lethargic by the sun, dropped his head on his paws.

"Gods. Why did I go ahead of everybody? Why was I so stupid?! Why couldn't I have let Stoick go first? Let the chief deal with all this?" Astrid worried her bangs, rubbing her hair back and forth in her fingers. She was maybe halfway around the lake now, just strolling.

Across the lake, Toothless rolled onto his back and spread his wings out on the ground, groaning with relaxation.

Astrid flinched. What was she doing, making a deal with the traitor? She should've kept fighting, kept trying to convince the village. One of these times somebody could restrain Hiccup. If the rest of the village could subdue the Night Fury, get just a couple more people in the loop…

But no. She'd struck that deal, out of exasperation and exhaustion, anger and apathy. She was a warrior of honor. She couldn't go back on her word now.

Kicking a rock into the water, she stomped the rest of the way around the lake and gave the sunbathing dragon a fierce glare from a few steps away.

The dragon stared back, clearly annoyed but not enough to go through the effort of killing her and restarting time.

"I don't get you. What's your goal? Your endgame? Why Hiccup, anyway?"

Toothless gave her a long, slow blink.

"Ugh!" Astrid threw up her hands and stormed back to the water's edge. "The Hel am I doing now?!" She sat back in the same place she'd been, now facing the water. It wasn't like it mattered if the dragon killed her. "I did it again, assuming dragons would have goals and endgames."

Insects buzzed. Birds chirped. Astrid clutched her forehead.

"Gods. Is this what the time loop does? Mess with your mind? Am I going crazy?" Astrid blinked. If she was going crazy, there was a sure sign. She was talking to herself!

She shot to her feet for another lap around the lake. If Hiccup didn't get back soon, she was going to kill him when he did.

Overhead, the sun reached the peak of its arc and began to descend.

-EoT-

 **Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third PoR (Point of Reference)**

"Would you STOP THAT!"

Hiccup stumbled, looking up. The shout had come from where he was going, the cove. Why was Astrid-

"Gods, I SWEAR I'll swim out into that lake and find my ax if you don't- I know you're there, so CUT IT OUT!"

Hiccup ducked into the crevice, scrambling down over the rocks to get into the cove. As he emerged from the other side, he spotted Astrid and Toothless.

"STOP IT! Gods you stupid, fire-breathing scaly fish-gobbling-"

Astrid spun around, swiping at the air behind herself with an empty hand. At the same time, Toothless leaped around to the space that was now behind her, his tail wagging and his tongue lolling.

"You're getting on my NERVES!" The Viking warrior roared, "Hiccup better get here soon, or I'll-"

Hiccup rushed past Toothless and grabbed Astrid's hands, abandoning the tail and saddle. "Astrid! Astrid, calm down. I'm here!"

"Finally!" Astrid noticed Hiccup's grip on her arms. "Let go of me!" she snapped, pulling her wrists free. "Gods I want this to be over with. What in Hel's name is your dragon even doing?!"

Hiccup looked up. Toothless was still wagging his tail in the air, though his mouth… "Toothless! Put that down!"

Toothless warbled through the mouthful of saddle and fin he'd picked up. The whole bundle was in his jaws. The dragon was practically bouncing, holding it just a few paces away.

"Toothless," Hiccup said, "Down." The scrawny Viking took a step toward the Night Fury.

The dragon took a step back, wagging his tail.

"Tooth-"

Toothless took off, racing around the cove's lake, then stopping on the far side.

"Hiccup, what is going on with him?! Why is he suddenly not listening to you?" Astrid advanced on him, "Should I be going back to the village now?"

"No, no!" Hiccup said, trying to defuse Astrid. "He's just… I don't know! He's…" He looked at his friendly dragon, trying to figure out what the reptile was thinking. His back wasn't arched, so he wasn't hunting. His eyes were big and round, so he wasn't threatened. He was happy... "He's playing!"

"... Playing?" Astrid asked, incredulous.

"Yeah! Come on, I think it's keep-away or tag. Or both! You go that way, I'll go this way." Hiccup began to jog one way around the lake.

"Hiccup, dragons don't play! They fight! And hunt!"

"Not Toothless!" Hiccup shouted back, remembering the play fighting and keep-away he'd done with the dragon several lives ago, before the stress of the time loop got to him.

"This is insane!" Astrid shouted, remaining in place.

Toothless barked happily, dropping the saddle and dodging away to keep himself on the farthest point of the lake from both Astrid and Hiccup. Slowly, Hiccup drove the Night Fury closer to Astrid.

"Try to grab him!" Hiccup said.

"What if he tries to kill me?!"

"He won't!"

-EoT-

An hour later, Hiccup hung tangled in the straps of the saddle, wondering how going along with Toothless' playfulness could possibly have seemed like a good idea. Astrid, lying halfway crushed beneath Toothless, groaned.

"So maybe dragons aren't terribly good at play fighting with multiple people…" Hiccup mumbled.

Astrid struggled to untangle her arm from one of the straps, then gave up and let it hang. "It was your idea to try to get the saddle on!"

Toothless, as tangled in the saddle and tail as both of the humans, moaned.

"It worked last time!" Hiccup trailed off, "... when the saddle had buckles."

"Oh, great," Astrid said, "So what now?"

"What now, what now?" Hiccup asked.

"Oh don't you what now me!" Astrid snapped.

"Gee, sorry. I just… don't get what you mean."

"What do we do now!"

"Get untangled, right?"

"After that."

Hiccup wilted.

"You better not think this changes anything."

"Astrid…"

"Oh, now you're going to tell me something about dragons being amazing, gentle creatures. And?" Hiccup felt Astrid trying to drag her leg out from under Toothless, to no avail. "They're still raiding us. They're still stealing our food. They're still a threat!"

Hiccup hung his head. Toothless, on the other hand, perked up. "Look, Astrid… There has to be some other way. You've met Toothless now, non-violently. Surely you can see that-"

Toothless stood up, shaking himself down. Astrid's arm slipped free and she fell to the ground as the saddle slipped into its proper place.

"H- Hey, Toothless. Bud, what's up?" Hiccup asked, freeing himself from the metal ring that allowed for proper control of the tail and finishing up the strap-work there.

The Night Fury looked to the sky, tensing his legs. Hiccup recognized the action from all the dragon's leaps, bounds, and launches.

"Bud, where are you going? What-"

Hiccup noticed Toothless' bound just in time to grab ahold of the strapwork. Astrid, in front of the dragon's wing, was swept up and forced to grab onto the saddle or risk plummeting a dozen feet into the cove's lake.

"HICCUP, WHAT THE HEL!" Astrid screamed.

Toothless, predictably, began to bank due to his bad tailfin. Desperately, Hiccup grabbed onto one of the ropes running the circumference of the metal ring and pulled, extending the tailfin.

"GET US DOWN! HICCUP!"

The bank corrected. Toothless continued to climb, shooting up out of the cove. Astrid clambered to a sitting position on his back. Hiccup dangled from the strapping.

"HIIIICUUUP!" Astrid screamed, furious and terrified.

"I don't know what he's doing, Astrid!" Hiccup shouted back, "He normally gives me more warning!"

"You mean this happens REGULARLY?!" Astrid exploded.

Trees swept past beneath them, almost close enough for Hiccup's dangling legs to kick. He didn't, instead trying to pull his legs up to get a foot onto Toothless' leg. "Not regularly! But-" He paused, struggling to climb a little higher. "Often? I mean, whenever it's safe for him to fly he likes to-"

The trees ended and, just as suddenly, so did gravity. Hiccup drifted upward until he was hovering just next to Astrid as Toothless plummeted.

"HIIIICUUUP!"

As suddenly as it disappeared, gravity returned. Toothless' wings shot out, immediately halting their fall just above the ocean. Hiccup slammed down onto the dragon's back, several of the Night Fury's spine fins jabbing him in the chest. None of them left any lasting harm.

The prosthetic tailfin faltered. Hiccup reached down past Astrid's leg, adjusting the pedal with his hand from his awkward position on Toothless' back. The fin snapped open again, and their flight corrected.

"Where are we going?!" Astrid demanded.

Toothless began to turn on his own. Hiccup pushed the pedal until the tailfin responded. "I don't know! We've never gotten off Berk before!"

"WHAT?!" Astrid shouted, "And you're just going along with this?!"

"Well…"

"Turn us around!"

Toothless settled on a course - west-northwest away from Berk.

"Astrid-"

"Turn us AROUND!" Astrid shouted, stomping on the pedal. Hiccup clutched his bruised hand, letting go of the pedal. Toothless' flight began to deteriorate.

"Astrid!" Hiccup pulled himself into a sitting position in the saddle, behind Astrid. He pushed her foot away, getting his into position in the pedal and restoring the prosthetic fin. "Stop, okay? Calm down! Just look around!"

"Hiccup, I-"

"Shh!"

Astrid stopped talking. Hiccup pointed past her, at the sunset sky awash with color, the way it reflected off the waves. He swept his arm out, indicating all the water around them just a short drop away.

"Look at this! Isn't this incredible?"

"I…" Words failed her. Hiccup could tell that she really didn't know what to say. For once, one of his points was really hitting home.

"Think about it," Hiccup said as they shot across the water at - for a watercraft - unimaginable speeds. "With Vikings on the backs of dragons… just look at this!"

They flew silently for an indeterminate period of time, Toothless flapping occasionally to maintain speed and altitude. As they watched, the sun set. The sky morphed through a bounty of hues - blues to purples, yellows to oranges. Eventually, the sun dropped entirely below the horizon and the sky became dark.

"Look there!" Astrid said suddenly, pointing to their right. In the darkening sky, a sheet of color wavered across the stars, "By the Gods…"

"This is amazing!" Hiccup said.

"This… this is amazing," Astrid agreed. "He's amazing."

Hiccup grinned as Astrid went to pat Toothless on the ear. When the dragon smacked her hand away, he became more concerned. "Toothless, come on! She's just-"

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted.

The scrawny Viking looked up over Astrid's shoulder. Ahead of them lay a wall of fog, as solid as the night sky was clear.

"We're headed right for it!"

Hiccup wrapped his foot around Astrid's, reaching the pedal over her leg. Pulling in his other leg, he clambered over her to get seated on the front of the saddle.

"What is he doing?"

"I don't know," Hiccup said, worry rising. He settled into the front, getting a solid grip on the saddle. "Hold on."

Still traveling unimaginably fast for any kind of boat, the Night Fury and its riders shot into the fog.

-EoT-

 **A/N:**

 **Sorry about breaking the previously unbroken Hiccup perspective. I thought some Astrid and Toothless conversations would be priceless.**


End file.
